UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Mount Union's men's basketball team dropped an 82-69 Ohio Athletic Conference contest to John Carroll Wednesday evening at DeCarlo Varsity Center.

Three Purple Raiders finished with double-digit point totals with junior Nathan Bower-Malone (Stow) leading with 19 points, freshman Collen Gurley (Akron/Hoban) chipped in with 15 points while junior D'Vontay Friga (Cuyahoga Falls) tallied 10 points.

John Carroll (8-10, 4-7 OAC) was led by Sean Flannery with a game-high 21 points.

The Blue Streaks started the game with a fast 10-4 lead. The Raiders battled back to cut the lead to 10-8 sparked by back-to-back layups from senior Diallo Niamke (Sagamore Hills/ Nordonia). After a Mount Union timeout, the Raiders tied the game at 16 with a layup from Bower-Malone. Friga scored five straight points to give Mount Union its first lead of the game at 21-18. Two lead changes and two ties would happen over the next six minutes with the Blue Streaks holding a slim 33-27 advantage. John Carroll closed the half with an 18-6 run to go into the intermission break up 49-33.

Bower-Malone started the scoring in the second half for the Raiders with a three-point field goal that cut the lead to 49-36. The Raiders closed the gap to 63-50 with a three-pointer from sophomore Andrew Carbon (Struthers). Mount Union would get as close as 13 with a little over 12 minutes left in regulation. John Carroll went on an 11-4 run to go up 78-60 with 6:34 remaining and go on to an 82-69 victory. 

The Raiders (14-4, 8-3 OAC) return home to host Ohio Northern in an OAC matchup Saturday, Jan. 26 with tip-off set for 2 p.m. at the MAAC.