In front of a max capacity crowd, the John Carroll Men's Basketball team defeated the Mount Union Purple Raiders, 88-86, in a nail-biting contest between two nationally ranked squads.
The dramatic overtime victory is John Carroll's first Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship since 2018 and sixth overall.
"This game is a huge momentum boost for us going into the NCAA tournament," junior guard Luke Chicone (5'11''-PG) commented after the game. "It feels great at the moment because we came up short last year, but we still have more work to do."
With that win, JCU extended their home record in OAC Championship games to 5-1, and the first ever to feature an overtime.
The Blue Streaks electrified DeCarlo Varsity Center with a 14-0 run in the first five minutes led by eight points from star junior Luke Frazier (6'6''-G-2001). JCU's fast start continued as the lead ballooned to 22, their biggest of the first half. The run came off buckets from Henry Raynor (6'7''-F), Will Yontek (6'7''-F), Chicone, Frazier, and Jerry Higgins III (5'10''-PG).
Mount Union quickly responded with buckets from Jahlil Graham and Darrell Newsome. The duo led a 13-0 run for Mount Union that cut the lead to 12. Newsom accounted for 14 of the Purple Raiders first-half points.
UMU's run was put to bed after a Purple Raider technical foul put Frazier on the line, which then sparked a 9-0 Blue Streak run. Mount Union continued to hang around going on runs of their own to stay in the contest. Caleb Laurich (6'7''-F) began to make his presence known in the paint adding nine points and two rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.
After going cold from the field, down the stretch of the first half, Chicone got a must needed Blue Streak bucket on a tough drive to the basket. This brought the John Carroll lead back to 12 to conclude an electric first half of basketball where the Blue Streaks found themselves up, 48-36.
Frazier had the hot hand for the Blue Streaks, ending the first half with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and 3-of-5 from behind the arc. Accompanying him, Raynor finished the half with 10 points of his own and five rebounds. On the defensive side, Chase Toppin and the rest of the JCU frontcourt held Collen Gurley and Christian Parker to a combined four points.
The tide of the game drastically shifted in the second half. The physicality of the Purple Raiders was ruling the day, and with their shots starting to fall, the massive Blue Streak lead evaporated. Along with offensive woes, Toppin would head to the bench with five fouls in the middle of the second half.
Gurley, who struggled to get anything to go in the first, suddenly couldn't miss as he scored 23 points in the second half. Two free throws from the graduate student tied the game with under a minute to go, and then chaos ensued.
In a span of one minute of game time, nobody could get anything going. With eight seconds left Chicone missed a three that set up a two on one Purple Raider fast break, but a shot clock malfunction caused an official timeout that gave Mount Union an out of bounds play with 2.6 seconds left. Elijah Farrington would be fouled on the inbounds pass sending him to the line with minimal time remaining by Yontek. This was Yontek's fifth, so he would head out.
Farrington sank both, forcing a quick inbounds pass to Chicone, who drove up the left sideline and was fouled with 0.4 seconds on the clock. In front of a full crowd of anxious fans, the Mentor product made both, sending the marathon of a game to overtime.
"Just had to make two free throws," Chicone said on his two free throws. "Just kept it simple and did my job."
Both teams traded buckets at the beginning of OT, but a clutch triple from Higgins III gave the Blue Streaks a 86-83 lead with under three minutes on the clock.
"I had been in a bit of a shooting slump and I just had to make sure I went back to my consistency," said Higgins. "Mentally, once I had the opening I knew I had to take it. Once the shot went off, it looked good."
Both squads would go scoreless for over two minutes of action and after checking in for a fouled out Luka Eller (6'7''-PF-2001), David Gentry (6'6''-PF) connected on two massive free throws to grow the lead to two possessions.
"I had the whole team behind me," said Gentry, in reference to his clutch free throws. "I had the confidence to go out there and sink both free throws and do what Coach [Moran] asked."
Gurley once again answered with a deep trey ball, but the Blue Streaks would hang on after Higgins put the clamps on defense in the final seconds. Securing the win for the Blue Streaks.

Courtesy of oac.org

OAC Final: John Carroll - Mount Union 88-86

OAC Semifinals:
John Carroll - Marietta 88-69
Mount Union - Heidelberg 91-85

OAC Quarterfinals:
Heidelberg - Capital 89-79
Otterbein - Marietta 67-73

All-Tournament MVP: Luke Frazier (6'6''-G-2001) of John Carroll
Player of the Year: Luke Chicone (5'11''-PG) of John Carroll
Defensive Player of the Year: Eric Panning (6'10''-F) of Heidelberg
Freshman of the Year: Baden Forup (6'7'') of Capital
Coach of the Year: Pete Moran of John Carroll

All-OAC First Team 2024

Chicone

Parker

Frazier

Clement

Willoughby

Panning

First Team
Luke Chicone (5'11''-PG) of John Carroll
Christian Parker (6'6''-F) of Mt.Union
Luke Frazier (6'6''-G-2001) of John Carroll
Jack Clement (6'0''-PG) of Otterbein
Sahmi Willoughby (6'3''-F) of Marietta
Eric Panning (6'10''-F) of Heidelberg

All-OAC Second Team 2024

Young

Evans

Toppin

Forup

Ellington

Newsom

Second Team
Isaiah Young (6'2''-G) of Heidelberg
Cam Evans (6'0''-PG) of Otterbein
Chase Toppin (6'1''-G) of John Carroll
Baden Forup (6'7'') of Capital
Ray Ellington (6'3''-G) of BWU
Darrell Newsom (6'3''-F) of Mt.Union

All-OAC Honorable Mention 2024

Gurley

Reese

Alexander

Davis

Combs

Sanford

Honorable Mention
Collen Gurley (6'3''-G) of Mt.Union
Carter Reese (6'3''-G) of Ohio Northern
Jac Alexander (5'10''-PG) of Marietta
Duane Davis (6'0''-PG) of Muskingum
Carter Combs (6'2''-G) of Capital
David Sanford (6'0''-PG) of Marietta
Domenic Farley (5'11''-PG) of Wilmington, OH
Julian Heckman (6'0''-PG) of Otterbein
Corey Hudson (6'1''-G) of Mt.Union

OAC All-Tournament Team 2024

Frazier

Chicone

Gurley

Parker

Panning

Willoughby

All-Tournament Team
Luke Frazier (6'6''-G-2001) of John Carroll
Luke Chicone (5'11''-PG) of John Carroll
Collen Gurley (6'3''-G) of Mt.Union
Christian Parker (6'6''-F) of Mt.Union
Eric Panning (6'10''-F) of Heidelberg
Sahmi Willoughby (6'3''-F) of Marietta