BEREA, Ohio -- A game against an archrival tends to bring out the best in certain players and teams.
That was evident Wednesday night at Baldwin Wallace's Urpsrung Gymnasium as the Yellow Jackets roughed up their cross-town rivals from John Carroll, 106-75.
Baldwin Wallace (10-4, 5-2 Ohio Athletic Conference) has won seven straight games overall and two straight against the Blue Streaks (6-7, 3-4). BW leads the series, 58-52.
BW's 106 points are the most it has scored since Nov. 17, 2006, when the Yellow Jackets defeated Curry (Mass.), 110-70. Last year's season-high of 97 was surpassed on a 3-pointer by Brandon Schmidt (Wellington) with 4:38 remaining, and the Yellow Jackets went over the century mark on a putback by Aaron Selmek with 3:55 remaining.
"That's a good win for us," BW head coach Duane Sheldon said. "Anytime you beat John Carroll, it's a good win. I think our guys did a very good job of valuing every possession one possession at a time. That's something we've been on them about time and time again, and I think we probably do that as well as anyone in the league."
Five players -- three starters and two reserves -- reached double figures in scoring for BW, led by sophomore guard Jaron Crowe with a career-high 19. The Mentor grad was 7-of-10 shooting, 5-of-7 from 3-point range, and scored 14 points in the second half to help the Jackets open an insurmountable lead.
"I give [the credit] all to my teammates," Crowe said. "They kept finding me when I was open. I hit my first couple and I felt really good and they just kept giving me the ball when I was open. We play as a team; we don't care who scores as long as we win, and a lot of people stepped up tonight."
Senior forward Chris Ameen (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) came off the bench to score 15 points in 13 minutes, hitting all six of his field goals and both of his 3-point attempts.
"It's always good to get a nice 'W,' especially with the rivalry that we have," Ameen said. "This is the second win we've had against them in my four years being here, so it's nice to even out the record as best we can. I'm speechless about how this feels. I'm actually still in shock that we not only beat them, but beat them as one-sided as we did at our place."
Kyle Payne (Brunswick) scored 13 points, reserve Grant Fairhurst had 14 and Tyler Ferrell (Brunswick) scored 10 for the Yellow Jackets.
A 7-of-16 performance from beyond the 3-point arc helped BW take a 49-37 lead into halftime. BW opened the second half with a 21-7 run to push the lead to 25 as Crowe scored 11 points during the run.
While John Carroll shot 40 percent (8-of-20) in the second half, BW shot a ridiculous 61 percent (19-of-31) and outscored the Blue Streaks, 57-38, over the final 20 minutes.
"It was like a bunch of grade-school kids against paid professional athletes," Blue Streaks coach Mike Moran said. "That's how I felt. They were just better at everything. That's my only comment."
Senior Kyle Hubbard (St. Edward) scored 18 points to lead the Streaks.
Dan Gilles is a freelance writer in Elyria