UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Otterbein men's basketball team was caught in a bit of a let-down spot Wednesday evening, recently securing an exciting home win to clinch a postseason spot before tasked with getting back on the road for a pair of challenging contests.

The Cardinals fell short in the first of those Wednesday night, coming up on the low end of an 88-67 matchup at host John Carroll inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center. John Carroll, entering this final week of the regular season in four-way tie for fourth place in the league standings, did itself a strong favor by moving to 16-8 overall and 9-7 against the OAC.

JCU never trailed on the night, scoring 31 points across the first 10 minutes of the initial period and never looking back. The Blue Streaks went into halftime with a 49-34 advantage.

Otterbein kept fighting and sliced the deficit to just 10 points on a few separate occasions, but would be unable to move any closer down the stretch. The Cardinals now stand 8-16 overall and remain locked into the eighth seed up the upcoming Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament.

John Carroll shot 51 percent on the night and buried 14 shots from behind the arc. Otterbein converted at a 41-percent clip and tried to keep pace with 11 three-pointers themselves.

Standout freshman Dallas Patrick, the reigning OAC Player of the Week, continued leading the way with a game-high 21 points while guard Jake Justice added 18 on six trifectas. Patrick is averaging over 24 per game in his last six outings while Justice has buried 14 triples in the last three.

Ryan Berger and Sean Flannery both scored 15 to lead five players in double figures for JCU, which finished with a 27-12 edge in points off turnovers. Otterbein will finish out the week Saturday afternoon at Baldwin Wallace, with tip scheduled for 2 p.m.