Facing a difficult portion of the OAC schedule, the John Carroll University men's basketball team looked to rebound from Saturday's tight loss in Alliance.
 
In typical OAC fashion it came down to the wire with John Carroll topping Baldwin Wallace 80-78 on Wednesday night inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center in University Heights, Ohio. The win pushed John Carroll's home record to 5-0, a first since the 2011-12 season.
 
John Carroll improved to 11-4, 7-2 OAC while Baldwin Wallace fell to 12-4, 6-3 OAC and had its eight-game win streak snapped in the process.
 
Baldwin Wallace pushed the pace early using an 8-0 run to jump out to a 21-15 lead less than seven minutes into the game.
 
A 10-0 run from the Blue and Gold gave JCU the 22-21 lead at the 10:23 mark. Danny Wallack played a key role in the run with five points.
 
Senior forward Matt Dennis tied the game at 28 while at the line for the Yellow Jackets.  From there Justin Roth, the OAC's leader scorer helped stake his team to a nine-point halftime lead at 44-35 with 17 first half points.
 
John Carroll's second platoon provided a big punch in the second half.
 
Down seven, a 3-pointer from freshman Tony Vuyancih helped spark a 6-0 surge from John Carroll to make it a 50-49 game with 16:00 remaining.
 
John Carroll used a 10-0 run to take the lead for good with four different players from the first platoon finding the scoresheet during the run.
 
The Yellow Jackets shortened their deficient to one after a trifecta from Jaron Crowne with 4:21 remaining. BW would again close within a point with eight seconds remaining. A would-be buzzer-beater by Matt Dennis rimmed out.
 
Hollinger led the way with 15 points including 11 in the second half.
 
Said Hollinger, "We faced a lot of adversity in this game," the senior said, "Couldn't be more proud of the guys. That's a veteran win right there."
 
Linane added 14 points including nine in the second half.
 
"We switched up the game plan," said Linane about the second half. "We wanted to pound it inside, then that opened up the floor for drive and kick and it's always good to have Jake around the rim to clean up."
John Carroll shot 53.4 percent for the game and held Baldwin Wallace to 36.6 percent from the field.
 
JCU returns to action with a 3 p.m. tilt at Wilmington on Saturday, Jan. 24.