Granville, Ohio - Third-seed John Carroll used an 18-3 first-half run to turn a tie game into a 15-point lead on the way to an 82-71 win over second-seed DePauw in the first semifinal game of the NCAC Tournament. DePauw finished its season at 18-8, while the Blue Streaks improved to 21-6 and face the winner of tonight's Denison/Wittenberg game in tomorrow's 7 p.m. championship game.

The opening 11 minutes were a back-and-forth battle with four ties and eight lead changes and neither team leading by more than four points. 

Brady Kunka hit a three with 8:49 left to tie the contest at 27-27. The Blue Streaks scored the next eight with Luke Chicone accounting for six of his 28 first-half points including the last three which gave John Carroll a 35-27 advantage with 6:47 left in the half.

Kunka countered with a trey at the 5:00 mark, but John Carroll rattled off the next 10 with Chicone's 3-pointer with 2:00 left pushing the Blue Streaks' lead to 45-30. Joe Smith hit a jumper and Caleb Washington knocked in a pair of free throws to close the halftime deficit to 45-34.

Washington opened the second half with a three to trim the margin to eight, but a 6-0 John Carroll run pushed it back to 14.

DePauw chipped away at the John Carroll lead and, after Logan Sigler and Sam Jacobs hit buckets, the Tigers trailed by just three at 59-56 with 11:49 remaining.

The Blue Streaks again countered and their 8-0 run pushed the lead back to 11 with just under eight minutes left.  DePauw briefly cut the margin back to single digits after Joe Smith's 3-pointer with 6:29 left, but John Carroll hit back-to-back threes to extend the lead to 15 and the Tigers got no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

Smith led DePauw with 18 points and three assists, while Kunka finished with 17 and eight rebounds. Jacobs rounded out the double-figure scorers with 12 points.

Chicone led John Carroll with 34 points and seven rebounds with Kasey Hunt and Mike Lamirand each scoring 12. Sean Collins dished out three assists in the win.

DePauw shot 40.3 percent from the field to John Carroll's 48.4 percent. The Blue Streaks held a 42-35 rebounding edge and committed just eight turnovers to the Tigers' 15.