UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Otterbein men's basketball team defeated John Carroll, 81-79, Tuesday evening inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center and snapped an 11 game-losing streak in the series. The Cards also picked up their first victory in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), which was won by John Carroll last year.

The Blue Streaks handed Otterbein its worst loss of the season last winter, winning 122-66 on the very same floor.

"College basketball is a rollercoaster ride and you see that across all divisions" said head coach Brian Oilar. "We believe there is a very good team in our locker room and we were able to show that tonight."

Otterbein (3-7 overall and 1-4 in the OAC) found success early in the game by attacking the paint and running in transition, as the Cardinals made 10 of their first 12 shots inside the three-point arc and beat the John Carroll press multiple times for easy layups.

The Cardinals used a 10-0 run that lasted nearly three minutes to build a six-point advantage, as Jay Joseph and Maurice Beavers tallied eight points each. Otterbein held the advantage for the next 10 minutes until the Blue Streaks would lead at 29-28 with 6:26 left in the half.

The Cards ended the first half by scoring nine of the final 11 points and led 44-42 entering the break. The 44 points was the most the Cardinals have scored in the first half of any game this season.

The Cardinals totaled 14 fast break points, as Nick Koontz led the charge with 10 points and Joseph with nine.

At the beginning of the second half Koontz intercepted a transition pass near mid-court and found Justin Carter, who rose up for a dunk to tie the game at 49-49 with slightly over 17 minutes remaining.

John Carroll (5-4 overall and 2-3 in the OAC) seemed to start pulling away with a lead of 57-52, until the Cardinals rattled off 11 straight points to silence the Blue Streak crowd.

With 6:52 remaining, Austin Springer split a pair of free throws to give Otterbein its largest lead of the game at 11 points. Springer made Otterbein's final field goal of the game at the 5:17 mark.

John Carroll cut the deficit to two in the final minute and forced Carter into a turnover. The Blue Streaks pushed the tempo in transition looking to tie, but Koontz secured a timely steal and kept the Cardinal lead at 81-79. 

Jimmy Berger of John Carroll was fouled with two seconds remaining and missed the first of a pair at the charity stripe. Berger intentionally missed the second attempt and grabbed his own shot, but left a potential game-tying jumper short. 

"I knew we were going to play small ball and I would be the primary five" Joseph said afterward, "It obviously worked well and came very natural, especially in transition."

Joseph finished with a game-high 19 points, as Beavers chipped in 16 off of the bench. The Cardinals had four players finish with double figures, shooting 45 percent as a team while JCU managed to go just 34 percent. The two sides were a combined 14 of 66 from beyond the arc.

Otterbein will be off until December 29 when they take part in the Tampa Bay Shootout against DePauw.