In the annals of John Carroll men's basketball, covering 98 years, the Blue Streaks own wins over Georgetown, Toledo, Akron, Bowling Green, Seton Hall, William & Mary, Kent State and Marquette just to name a few.

Any team that JCU has played at least five times, they own at least one victory against.

All except one. Hope College.

Five previous battles, and all five had come up empty.

With one victory under their belts on their trip to Holland, Michigan, the Blue Streaks were hoping to both change history and reach double digits wins on the season as they faced off against the host Flying Dutchmen in what turned out to be the championship game of the Russ DeVette/Holland Sentinel Classic Saturday afternoon at the DeVos Fieldhouse.

Try as they might, the Blue Streaks once again could not break through as Hope produced a 104-94 victory.

Much like the entire season, JCU would find themselves with the early lead thanks to three-point shooting. Two shots from beyond the arc from sophomore Ryan Berger and senior Antonio Vuyancih gave John Carroll a 6-0 advantage right from the start.

But Hope would storm back, going on a 17-4 run behind scorers Dante Hawkins and Rob McGivney.

After the quick start, JCU struggled from behind the arc throughout the first half. Despite getting open looks, the Blue Streaks only mustered a 3-15 effort from three-point territory.

Fighting through the poor long range shooting, the Blue Streaks still managed to keep the contest tight, as Hope held a slim 32-30 lead with just five minutes remaining. From there, the Flying Dutchmen would widen their advantage, as Hope headed into halftime with a 46-35 lead. Hawkins had 17 points through the first 20 minutes.

Ryan Berger would start the second half as the spark JCU seemed to need, netting six points in the first minute. However, the Flying Dutchmen would not let any sort of comeback occur and continued to improve their margin. John Carroll did not do itself any favors by getting into foul trouble. With nearly 13 minutes left in the second half, the Blue Streaks had already accumulated seven team fouls, allowing Hope to get to the charity stripe 28 times in the final period alone. The Flying Dutchmen made 34 of 41 free throw attempts, which accounted for 33 percent of their scoring on the day.

When Hawkins buried a three ball at the 10:40 mark, John Carroll appeared to be buried as that basket put Hope ahead 79-58. The Blue Streaks responded to the largest deficit of the contest by ripping off an 8-0 rin, fueled by five points from Sean Flannery.

At the 6:21 mark, the Blue Streak managed to dip the deficit down to single digits on a Ryan Berger lay-up that made the score 88-80.

John Carroll managed to whittle Hope's lead to just six points on five occasions over the next three minutes but could never get the margin down to a single possession. Ryan Berger hit a three-pointer with 1:29 left to make the score 99-94, but the Blue Streaks did not score again after that. Hope, which scored 13 of its final 17 points at the charity stripe, made five free throws over the final 53 seconds to seal the win.

Hope is now 6-0 all-time against John Carroll, with three of those wins coming in NCAA Division III Tournament play.

Ryan Berger paced the JCU squad with 22 points, while senior Matthew Csuhran contributed 18 points of his own. This was only the third contest all season in which the Blue Streaks did not break the 100-point mark. The setback snapped a four-game winning streak for JCU.

Jason Beckman (26) and Hawkins (24) combined for 50 points to lead Hope, which improved to 6-5 with the victory.

Ryan Berger and Antonio Vuyancih were named all-tournament. Berger scored 36 points in the two games on 13-22 (.591) shooting from the field, which includes 7-13 (.538) from three-point range. He also had two rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal over the course of the tournament. Vuyancih was 10-19 (.526) from the field, 5-8 (.625) from three-point range, and 4-5 (.800) from the free throw line for his 29 points. He also had seven rebounds, five assists and five steals to his credit.

The loss puts JCU at a 9-2 record overall.

John Carroll will resume Ohio Athletic Conference play next week, facing Heidelberg in Tiffin on Wednesday, January 3, at 7:00 p.m.