'Berg falls to No. 3 John Carroll in final minutes

Heidelberg played just as good - if not better - than John Carroll for 36 minutes Wednesday.The problem was that's not enough against the No. 3 team in the country.The Student Princes faltered late, falling to JCU, 76-69 in Ohio Athletic Conference action at Seiberling Gymnasium."I told them we played hard enough to win. We played well enough to win," Heidelberg coach Andy Bucheit said. "We deserved to win, but we didn't. That's basketball. That's life."Heidelberg (11-7 overall, 7-4 OAC) traded leads with the Blue Streaks (17-1, 11-0) multiple times in the second half. The Student Princes went up for the final time - 67-65 with 4:16 to play - after a bucket by Markell Johnson-Nichols.John Carroll answered right back as Jerry Higgins hit a 3 to put the Blue Streaks ahead. A score by Luke Chicone after a Higgins steal made it 70-67 with 3:34 to play.Eric Panning responded for Heidelberg on the other end before Will Yontek split two free throws to keep JCU up 71-69 with 2:17 to go.With a chance to tie or take the lead, the Student Princes failed to cash in as a shot clock violation turned the ball back over to the Blue Streaks. John Carroll did take advantage as Luka Eller drilled a corner 3 with 1:20 to go."They made the plays and we didn't," Bucheit. "Their center - who doesn't shoot 3s all year - made a 3 in a crucial possession at the end of the game. What are you going to do?"Heidelberg didn't score again as Chicone made a pair of free throws to finish off the win. After just four turnovers in the first half, the Student Princes committed 11 in the second half."We shot 48 percent in the second half," Bucheit said. "There's 11 other opportunities where if we scored on half of those, that's nine or 10 more points right there. Now it's a different ballgame. We're just throwing the ball away."We've got good guard play, but we just handed them the ball at times."There was a lack of aggression from Heidelberg too. The Student Princes shot just one free throw in the second half. It went further back than halftime as 'Berg was in the bonus on JCU's seventh team foul in the first half with 12:39 to go.Heidelberg only shot three total free throws after that point and seven for the game."We played soft," Bucheit said. "We talk about attacking people's hips and driving through people. We were bouncing out and playing away from that. We faded away in and around the basket."Can't win games if you're going to play soft like that."Heidelberg didn't trail early on and used a 6-0 run to go up 18-12. John Carroll answered with the next eight points to take its first lead of the game.A 3 by Johnson-Nichols erased Heidelberg's only deficit of the first half and jumpstarted a 10-0 run by the Student Princes. 'Berg led most of the rest of the half, but the Blue Streaks scored the final five points of the half to even the game at 40 at the break.There were double-digit lead chances in the second half. Tre Watkins' triple put Heidelberg up 45-44 and later, consecutive buckets by Jashun Cobb and Zachary Chatmon gave the Student Princes a 51-49 lead.Heidelberg really looked like it snatched some momentum when trailing by four points with about eight minutes to play. Zane Leitwein drained back-to-back 3s to put the Student Princes up 63-61 with 7:29 to play.'Berg made just 7-of-22 3-pointers on the night. That included Leitwein's makes 23 seconds apart."We haven't shot the 3 well all year, but to see us make seven is huge," Bucheit said.Bucheit liked the defense his team played against Chicone and Luke Frazier. The two entered averaging a combined 37.7 points per game. Chicone finished with 13 points while Frazier scored nine."We did a great job on those guys tonight," Bucheit said. "Our guys were awesome. We did a lot of great things. We did a lot of awesome things, but we didn't make the plays to win the game. Part of that doing stuff really well was defending those guys."Leitwein paced the Student Princes with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Chatmon and Watkins (three assists) each scored 11. Cobb and Johnson-Nichols both tallied seven points while Panning also grabbed 10 rebounds."We talked about one-game winning streaks," Bucheit said. "Whatever the outcome was today, we talked about still keeping a fresh mind and fresh body and being ready to play on Saturday."It's an unforgiving league and if you're not mentally ready or there as a team collectively, then it's certainly not going to go your way." John Carroll 76, Heidelberg 69John Carroll 40-36 - 76Heidelberg 40-29 - 69John Carroll (17-1, 11-0): 29-66 FG, 13-20 FT, 5-11 3pt (Higgins 2, Eller, Chicone, Frazier), 42 rebounds (Gentry 7), 10 turnovers. Scoring: Luke Chicone 4 4-7 13, Chase Toppin 5 1-2 12, Luke Frazier 4 1-1 9, Luka Eller 2 1-2 6, Henry Raynor 3 1-1 7, Jerry Higgins 6 0-0 14, David Gentry 2 1-2 5, Will Yontek 3 4-5 10.Heidelberg (11-7, 7-4): 29-71 FG, 4-7 FT, 7-22 3pt (Leitwein 2, Watkins, Young, Johnson-Nichols, Chatmon, Cobb), 42 rebounds (Panning 10, Leitwein 10), 15 turnovers. Scoring: Zane Leitwein 6 0-0 14, Tre Watkins 5 0-1 11, Isaiah Young 2 0-0 5, Carter Pleiman 3 0-0 6, Eric Panning 2 2-3 6, Amil Jenkins 1 0-0 2, Markel Johnson-Nichols 2 2-3 7, Zachary Chatmon 5 0-1 11, Jashun Cobb 3 0-0 7.