John Carroll came into tonight's game ranked fourth in Division III basketball averaging over 104 points per contest. Baldwin Wallace, on the other hand, ranked first in the Ohio Athletic Conference in points per game allowed, permitting just over 72 points per contest.

The battle of great offense versus great defense would be waged on Wednesday night at the DeCarlo Center, and though defense would win, so would John Carroll. Behind some lockdown defense of its own, the Blue Streaks would prevail by a 77-70 score over conference and crosstown rival Baldwin Wallace.

The victory kept John Carroll alone in first place in the OAC (12-3), one game ahead of Ohio Northern and Marietta (11-4). Baldwin Wallace, which was held to 38 percent from the field and 22 percent from behind the arc, slipped to 9-6 and alone in fourth place in the league standings.

The 77 points marked a season low for John Carroll, but also marked the first time John Carroll scored less than 90 points this season and won the game.

Defense was a necessity for the Blue Streaks, who started out missing eight of their first nine shots from the field, and trailed midway through the first half by a 20-8 score.

Over the next five minutes, JCU would allow just three points, during which time the offense began to find itself. When Antonio Vuyancih nailed a jumper at the 5:46 mark, the Blue Streaks only trailed 23-19.

Towards the end of the first half, Baldwin Wallace forced a Blue Streak turnover and looked to end the half on a strong note. Kyle Nadar thought he had an easy two points, but Jimmy Berger came out of nowhere and pinned the ball against the glass firing up the Blue and Gold before the break.

Still, the home team could not seize control and trailed 33-29 at halftime. Both squads were struggling with their shooting touch -- John Carroll shooting 34 percent from the field, edging Baldwin Wallace's 32 percent.

Cam Kuhn led all scorers with eight points at the break, despite shooting 25 percent from the field. John Carroll was led by Vuyancih who grabbed eight rebounds, while adding five points.

Following a tightly contested first half, the second half would follow suit. Back-and-forth basketball would be on display, as the lead for BW would never grow above five points and John Carroll had four ties in the opening ten minutes but could never take the lead.

The turning point of the contest occurred with 10 minutes to go, when Jimmy Berger went up for a layup and got injured. he would have to leave the game, but came back in shortly and helped engineer an effective offense, often times playing alongside fellow point guard Sean Flannery.

Matt Csuhran's free throws at the 9:33 mark gave JCU its first lead of the night at 50-49, and once JCU grabbed the lead, it would not let go. Immediately after the made free throws, Flannery stole a pass shortly after the inbound and found Vuyancih, who nailed a three to blow the roof off the DeCarlo Center.

Flannery and Jimmy Berger continued to run the JCU offense as both point guards finished the game with zero turnovers. With 6:35 remaining in the game, Flannery dished a no look pass to Ryan Berger would build the Blue Streaks lead to 59-53, forcing a BW timeout. After the Baldwin Wallace timeout, Cshuran grabbed a rebound off a Yellow Jackets miss and tossed a pass to hit Brian Papich in stride. Papich would rise up and slam one home for the Blue and Gold to put JCU up 61-53 with 6:09 remaining.

John Carroll seemed to have the game locked up following a Ryan Berger and-one, giving JCU their largest lead of the night 70-56 lead with 2:23 left in the contest. Baldwin Wallace would not go away. Over the final two minutes BW would cut the deficit down to five, but JCU would hang on and come out with the victory, improving to 9-0 on its home court.

Following the game when asked about the Blue Streaks strong defensive efforts, Vuyancih said it was the simple things, starting with hustle.

"The biggest difference in our game tonight was rebounding," said Vuyancih. "We attacked the boards hard and avoided letting BW get second chance opportunities."  

Ryan Berger shared game-high point honors with 16 points, while Vuyancih recorded his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Csuhran added 12 points and Allen Stokes grabbed ten rebounds.

Jay Battle paced four Yellow Jackets in double figures with 16 points.

Next up, JCU will battle Ohio Northern Saturday (February 10) in Ada, Ohio, at 2 p.m. in a matchup of two of the top teams in the OAC.