BEREA, Ohio --  Freshman guard Jay Battle (Gahanna/ Lincoln) scored a game and career-high 25 points, six rebounds and six assists, but the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team lost to visiting OAC and Cleveland cross-town rival No5-ranked John Carroll University, 102-89, in an OAC game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center. This was the last game of the first half of the OAC regular season.

In addition to Battle for BW (10-6, 5-4 OAC), sophomore forward Jake Fetherolf (Norwalk) had 15 points and a game-high-tying eight rebounds, sophomore forward Mike Kaminski (Medina) had 13 points and senior Academic All-OAC forward Zach Warner (Clyde) had 12 on four three-pointers. JCU (16-0, 9-0 OAC) was led by junior guard David Linane with 16 points.

In the first half, BW jumped out to a pair of early six-point leads with the last at 14-8 when Battle drove to the basket and made a layup. JCU outscored BW 1-0 and built a 21-14 lead at 12:28, but the Yellow Jackets returned the favor with a 7-0 run to tie it at 21-21 at 11:12 when Battle canned his second three-pointer.

JCU retook the lead with a 5-0 run to build a 26-21 lead at 8:23 before a 5-2 Yellow Jacket spurt made it a 28-26 game with 7:14 left when junior guard Zack Brandy (Hudson) made a layup. The Blue Streaks closed the first half on a 26-10 run to build a 54-36 halftime advantage.

After being down by 19 points on three separate occasions in the second half with the last at 63-44 at 17:06, BW went on an 8-0 run to cut the JCU lead to 63-52 at 15:08 when Warner canned a triple. The Blue Streaks led by 16 at 71-55 at 11:42, BW went on a 19-6 run to cut the JCU lead to 77-74 at 7:13 when Brandy nailed a trey. But that was as close as BW would get to earning an upset.

BW is back in action on Saturday, January 19 when the Yellow Jackets host Muskingum University in the second game of a women's and men's doubleheader at 4 p.m. It is the second of a four-game homestand as BW also hosts the University of Mount Union on January 27 at 7:30 p.m. and No.11-ranked Marietta College on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m.