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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein men's basketball team battled John Carroll inside a well-populated Rike Center Wednesday night before ultimately falling 97-71 in an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) matchup.

The matchup started with back and forth play involving several missed opportunities for both teams with the first basket coming at the 18:13 mark. Otterbein quickly picked up the pace making four-straight shots, three of them coming from sophomore Nick Koontz.

Both teams were then able to gather a six-point lead apiece, before John Carroll ultimately went into the break up two at 40-38. The Cards checked in shooting 48 percent at the half which included five three-pointers, with 18 of its points from senior Corey Howard and redshirt-sophomore Cam Arminio.

After a few quick buckets from the Blue Streaks coming out of halftime, the Cards were able to retake the lead with a 9-3 scoring run putting the score at 52-49. John Carroll then regained control of the momentum with a 26-10 run to take a 13-point lead.

From there JCU took complete control of the game as Otterbein missed multiple shots, with the Blue Streaks capitalizing to outscore the Cards by 13 in the final six and a half minutes to secure their 16th win of the season and 10th in conference play.

Otterbein was led by Koontz with a career-high 19 points, who shot 8 of 11 from the floor. The Cardinals also received 15 points from senior Matt Hughes and season-high 12 points from Arminio. Freshman Gabe Watson also dished out a game-high seven assists.

John Carroll had five players in double-figures, with Matthew Cshuran and Jackson Sartain leading the way with 17 points each. Cshuran also helped the Blue Streaks with a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Cardinals will travel to Berea to take on the Yellow Jackets of Baldwin Wallace inside the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium Saturday at 2 p.m.