With the victory, the Blue Streaks will play in their third consecutive conference championship game tomorrow night. The opponent will be none other than crosstown rival Baldwin-Wallace in what will be the first meeting between the two Cleveland rivals in an OAC Championship game. The winner earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Trailing by nine points with 15:30 left in the second half, the Muskies fought back and finally tied the score at 59-59 when Jeff Smallwood hit a three pointer with 3:59 remaining in regulation. The game went back and forth from that point on.
Things looked bleak for the John Carroll side when Brandon Mimes picked up his fifth foul on a Cole Pittis lay-up attempt with 18 seconds left in regulation and the scored tied 64-64. Pittis, however, missed the free throws and John Carroll grabbed the rebound off the second.
The Blue Streaks attempted to get a game-winning shot but turned over the ball. With four seconds left, Muskingum raced the ball down court, but Zach Ross missed wide on a three-point attempt as time expired and the game was extended by five minutes.
Drew Salata started the overtime by making one of two foul shots, then Mike Grogan put back an offensive rebound to give John Carroll a 67-74 lead. After Pittis split a pair of foul shots, Justin Ragor made a lay-up on an inbounds play to make the score 69-65 in favor of John Carroll with 2:26 remaining in the extra session. The Muskies still trailed by two in the closing seconds, 69-67, and had a chance to tie the score but Smallwood missed a jumper with just one second left. Ragor pulled down the rebound and was fouled immediately. He made one of two foul shots to set the final margin. Smallwood had a half court heave at the buzzer that drew backboard and iron but not the net.
Ragor had a career-high 25 points to lead top-seeded John Carroll (22-4). In the first half he scored ten straight points during a John Carroll 18-2 run that turned an 18-8 deficit into a 26-20 lead.. Mimes added ten points as the only other John Carroll player in double figures.
Ross finished with 18 points for Muskingum (17-10), while Smallwood and Pittis added 12 and 11 points respectively.
Muskingum vs John Carroll 02/25/05 8:00 pm at University Heights OAC Tournament Semifinals JOHN CARROLL 70, MUSKINGUM 67 MUSKINGUM (17-10) Zach Ross 6-14 5-6 18; Jeff Smallwood 4-9 2-2 12; Cole Pittis 4-8 2-7 11; Jeremy Ady 3-5 0-1 7; Roy Skidmore 3-4 0-0 6; Graig Turson 2-2 2-2 6; Matt Dansby 2-6 0-0 4; Cliff Sprang 0-1 3-6 3. Totals 24-49 14-24 67. JOHN CARROLL (22-4) Justin Ragor 8-11 6-7 25; Brandon Mimes 5-8 0-3 10; Michael Grogan 3-10 1-2 8; Demetrius Travis 4-7 0-0 8; Peter Koch 3-9 0-1 7; Andrew Salata 2-4 1-2 5; Kyle Roggenburk 2-5 1-3 5; Chris Day 1-4 0-1 2; John Curran 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-59 9-19 70. Muskingum..................... 27 37 3 - 67 John Carroll.................. 31 33 6 - 70 3-point goals-Muskingum 5-15 (Jeff Smallwood 2-4; Jeremy Ady 1-2; Cole Pittis 1-1; Zach Ross 1-6; Matt Dansby 0-1; Roy Skidmore 0-1), John Carroll 5-12 (Justin Ragor 3-4; Peter Koch 1-3; Michael Grogan 1-3; Chris Day 0-1; John Curran 0-1). Fouled out--Muskingum-Matt Dansby, John Carroll-Brandon Mimes. Rebounds-Muskingum 37 (Zach Ross 8), John Carroll 32 (Andrew Salata 9). Assists-Muskingum 10 (Matt Dansby 6), John Carroll 12 (Michael Grogan 5). Total fouls-Muskingum 17, John Carroll 25. A-1600