February 17, 2000
Good points don't add up to win for The 'Berg
By John Montgomery
Sports Writer
Heidelberg seemed to have everything it needed for a win Wednesday against John Carroll.
The 'Berg:
Having all of those things fall together should have resulted in a win, according to Heidelberg coach John Hill.
But John Carroll had other ideas, using a late first half run to take a 42-34 lead at the intermission and then hold off The 'Berg in the second half to earn an 89-80 Ohio Athletic Conference victory.
One of the keys was how John Carroll rebounded, especially in the first half.
The Blue Streaks (13-10 overall, 8-7 OAC) held a 23-16 edge on the boards in the first half before Heidelberg closed that gap to 39-38 by the end of the game.
But it really all came down to the final 3:37 of the first half.
The 'Berg (11-12, 6-9) trailed 26-15 after John Carroll's Antonio Dunklin nailed a jumper from the wing at the 10:38 mark.
Heidelberg rallied back by doubling up the Blue Streaks 12-6 over the next 6:42.
C.J. Short hit a 3-pointer from the wing for The 'Berg that was answered by a baseline jumper from John Carroll's Paul Niermann to make it 28-21.
Low post buckets by Heidelberg's Ryan Klebowski and Ryan Szepiela cut the gap to 28-25 with 6:09 left in the half.
Niermann added another two of his game-high 29 points with his own score from down low for the Blue Streaks, Ryan Niemic hit jumper from the wing for The 'Berg and John Carroll's Michael Hill scored from the right block to make it 32-27 with 5:08 before halftime.
But Nate Walters drained 3-pointer from the right baseline at the 3:56 mark to pull The 'Berg to within 32-30.
And then everything went wrong.
Missed shots, a foul that led to two made free throws and a turnover by Heidelberg on the ensuing inbounds play that turned into a John Carroll score helped the Blue Streaks go on a 10-4 run to close out the half with a 42-34 lead.
"They got ahead by 11, and then we cut it to two, and then right in the last three minutes of the half they went ahead on us," Hill said. "With 3:56 to go in the first half, it's 32-30, and then they outscore us 10 to 4 in the last couple of minutes of the half.
"Just like against Ohio Northern, we lost the game at the end of the (first) half. It's real close, we go, we take a bad shot, they score, they score, they score to end the half," he said. "We're not smart enough in those couple of minutes to play like we should play and play smart."
The 'Berg closed the gap to 42-39 early in the second half off a jumper by Jon Otterbach, a foul shot from Walters and a layup from Szepiela with 18:27 to play.
But John Carroll pulled away and led by as many as 13 before Heidelberg trimmed the lead to six points, 73-67, with 5:34 to go.
However, the Blue Streaks were in the bonus by then and went 8-of-13 from the line from there to preserve the win.
Hill ended with 19 points for John Carroll and Holmes had 14 points and eight boards.
Heidelberg was paced by 20 points and 18 rebounds from Randy Evans.
Walters finished with 18 points and Szepiela had 12 points.
The 'Berg's Kory Winkler, a Columbian graduate, grabbed seven rebounds and scored nine points to top the 1,000-point plateau early in the first half.
He's the 21st Heidelberg player to reach that mark and now has 1,005 career points with one more regular season game and the OAC Tournament left.