It has been a longer than expected drought since John Carroll last earned at least a share of the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title.

The six year wait ended Wednesday night, as the Blue Streaks had enough gas in the tank to cross the finish line ahead of Heidelberg, winning 91-78.

The victory clinched a share of the 2018 OAC regular season crown, marking the first time this has occurred since 2012, when JCU and Capital shared the championship. The last outright title for John Carroll took place in the 2009-10 campaign.

For the Blue & Gold to win the outright OAC crown this year, it all comes down to the final Saturday. The Blue Streaks would need to either beat Capital on the road or Marietta would need to lose at Ohio Northern. 

In their final home game of the 2017-18 regular season, head coach Pete Moran's team had a nice pre-contest ceremony for the program's four seniors. John Cirillo, Matt Cshuran, Brian Papich and Antonio Vuyancih were lauded for having been part of 82 victories in their four years.

Getting that 83rd win proved to be difficult right from the outset.

Heidelberg scored the first eight points of the game, and it took a few minutes for the Blue Streaks to catch up. Csuhran tied the game at 13-13 with 14:45 to play, but it took a Jackson Sartain three ball to put the Blue Streaks ahead for the first time, 19-18 with 13:53 showing on the first half clock.

The lead would trade hands a few times and Heidelberg seemed ready to make a push in the closing minutes of the opening period. When Mike Mason drained two free throws with 4:01 left to play, the Student Princes had raised their advantage back up to six points at 38-32.

Those would be the last points of the half for the visitors. JCU closed out the final four minutes with 11 unanswered points. Sartain continued his blistering shooting with two three pointers to fuel the run, and the Blue Streaks took a 43-38 lead into the locker room.

In a flip-flop from the first half, it was John Carroll that burst out of the gates only to be caught by Heidelberg. The Student Princes caught JCU at 49-49 on a Chris Moxley jumper, then took the lead on a Mason put back 51-49 with 14:43 to play.

Heidelberg would last lead following a Kiere Bennie three ball at the 14:16 mark, but Csuhran answered 12 seconds later with a three of his own, and John Carroll never trailed again. In fact, Csuhran's quick answer jump started a 10-1 run.

It was still not a comfortable lead until the latter stages of the contest. The Blue Streaks finally pushed their advantage to double digits at the 6:18 mark when Vuyancih dropped in a lay-up to make the score 79-69. The Student Princes would never get closer than six points the rest of the way, and that happened twice.

John Carroll (20-4, 14-3) claimed its 11th OAC regular season title since 1994 (it joined the league in 1989) on the strength of Sartain's amazing shooting night. The freshman was clutch on senior night as he was 9-10 from the field, including 8-9 from three-point range, for a game-high 26 points in 18 minutes of court time. Players other than Sartain shot 21-58 from the field and 6-29 from three-point range for the Blue Streaks. Csuhran was the only other John Carroll player in double figures with 15 points. 

Heidelberg (10-14, 6-11 OAC), which slipped into ninth place with the loss, was paced by 22 points from Myron Prewitt.