Box Score The promise of the first half gave way to the reality of the second, as the shots stopped falling for John Carroll in an 85-74 loss to top seed and regular season champion Mount Union in the 2020 Ohio Athletic Conference championship game Saturday night in Alliance, Ohio.
The Blue Streaks did seemingly everything right in the opening 20 minutes. When
Sean Flannery's desperation heave from the corner as time expired bounced, rolled, and then fell through to give his team a 47-36 advantage at the end of the first half, it seemed as though everything was bouncing John Carroll's way.
Mount Union had other plans. A 9-0 start to the second half got momentum shifted, and even a four-point play by
Ryan Berger at the 13:29 mark that made the score 58-53 in John Carroll's favor did little to stem the tide. The Purple raiders answered that with another 9-0 run to take their first lead of the second half.
The Blue Streaks stayed within striking distance for the rest of the half, keeping the deficit within single digits, but could never catch Mount Union.
Sean Flannery hit a three-pointer with 3:16 left to make the score 74-70, but then it was Collen Gurley's turn for a four-point play with 2:06 left that seemed to take some starch out of the Streaks. Mount Union led 78-70 at that juncture, and was never threatened down the stretch.
JCU made just three long range shots over the course of the second half in 14 attempts.
The first half featured a tremendous shooting effort the Blue Streaks, who made 11-21 (.524) from three-point range. After Mount Union opened the game with a 9-0 run, John Carroll answered with an 8-0 run. For a majority of the opening 20 minutes, the margin was close. There were seven lead changes and four ties over the opening 15 minutes, but John Carroll had a late burst that shocked the home team. A 14-4 run, capped by Flannery's buzzer beater three, gave the Blue Streaks an 11-point lead heading into into halftime.
Jackson Sartain, who was named to the OAC All-Tournament team, led the way for John Carroll with 22 points while
Jimmy Berger added 17.
Sean Flannery chipped in ten points as the Blue Streaks end their season at 19-9.
Curley, who was named tournament MVP, was the game's leading scorer with 32 points.
