Tension was high in a rematch of last season's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship on Saturday.  

Once more, John Carroll men's basketball came out on top.

The Blue Streaks outscored the Marietta Pioneers by 17 in the second half, toppling the nation's #3 team by a final score of 88-76.

John Carroll improves to 3-4 and gets an important second conference win in one week. Marietta falls to 7-1, and 2-1 in OAC play. It is the third consecutive win for John Carroll over Marietta in University Heights. 

Simon Kucharewicz had 22 points and seven rebounds in the win. Ryan Berger notched 17 points, including a 7-of-7 mark from the free throw line. Brian Papich had 12 points and eight boards.

David Linane, Jr. brought home 14 points and dished four assists. Marietta was led by Dillon Young's 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from three-point range. A.J. Edwards was held to 11 points, and added 11 boards.

The Blue Streaks held the Pioneers to 36.4 percent shooting in the second half, while JCU was a scorching 15-of-25 (60%) in the final 20 minutes. John Carroll converted off turnovers, scoring 23 points off of MC mistakes. The Pioneers bench won the battle against the JCU reserves, outscoring them 34-18. 

John Carroll flew out to a 7-2 lead, before Marietta closed the gap at nine each. Marietta led by as much as eight midway through the half, and held a 33-26 advantage with 1:48 to go.

Berger drilled a three with 1:20 to play, and following a steal, Tim Ludlow roared down, missed a layup and buried the following jumper to make it a 33-31 game. Keith Richardson flew up the floor and drained a big three-pointer in the waning seconds to silence the crowd and give the Pioneers a 36-31 lead into the locker room.

JCU opened on an 8-3 run to tie the game, and took the lead on a Brian Papich layup with 16:27 to play. Marietta never led again. The DeCarlo faithful roared as the Blue Streaks ripped off a 16-1 run to make the score 59-46 five minutes later.

The third-ranked Pioneers battled back to 61-58 with under eight to go, but back-to-back Kucharewicz layups and a pair of Berger free throws gave JCU breathing room. Ten free throws down the stretch helped seal the deal, and JCU walked off the floor at 2-1 in the OAC.

Next up for JCU is a Dec. 17 matchup with Ohio Northern in Ada, Ohio.