CLAREMONT, CA – Junior George Bugarinovic scored with 13.1 seconds on the clock and sophomore Gene Williams sealed it with a pair of free throws with 2.8 to go as Johns Hopkins defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 67-65, on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Wells Classic. The Blue Jays win their third straight as they improve to 4-2 overall while the Stags fall to 3-2 in just the second meeting between the two programs.
Shelby Lane scored with 1:30 to play on a bucket in the paint to pull the Stags even at 62 apiece. Bugarinovic then drew a foul on the other end and hit the back-end to put the Blue Jays ahead one with 1:16 on the clock. Jason Harrington's pull-up jumper on the other end missed the mark and senior Connor McIntyre controlled the board. Hopkins brought the ball up and Bugarinovic drove the paint before laying the ball into to push the lead to three. On the other end, Tyler Gaffaney missed his three-point attempt; Williams grabbed the board and was fouled. He calmly sank both of his shots from the line to stake JHU to a five-point lead before Gaffaney drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to account for the final.
After a slow start by both teams, Hopkins went on a 13-2 run to push out to a 19-8 lead with 8:51 to play in the first half. Sophomore Austin Vasiliadis got things going with a free throw and a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Williams followed with a triple of his own following a CMS miss and the lead was seven. Sophomore Niko Kotoulas capped the run with a lay-up to give the Blue Jays what would turn out to be the largest lead of the game by either team.
CMS answered with a run of its own, ignited by back-to-back buckets by Jack Earley and Gaffaney in a 22-second span. That was the beginning of a 14-2 Stags' run that saw an 11-point Jays' lead turn into a one-point Stags' advantage. Gaffaney, who finished the first half with 17 points, accounted for half of CMS's points during the run. Bugarinovic put the Blue Jays back on top with a pair of free throws at 4:26. He and senior Daniel Corbett then converted back-to-back fast-break layups and Hopkins led 27-22 with 3:36 to go in the half.
The Stags came right back, behind consecutive treys from Gaffaney, to take a one-point lead at the 1:51-mark. After a Blue Jay miss on the other end, Nick Lund hit a layup and the lead was three. McIntyre trimmed the deficit to one after hitting a pair from the charity stripe but Remy Pinson would cash in a bucket from downtown after a Stags' offensive rebound as time expired in the half.
Leading 33-29 coming out of the break, CMS pushed its lead to six on a Lund dunk 62 seconds in. Hopkins answered with buckets from Bugarinovic and Corbett to cut the deficit back to two, but a Harrington free throw and a Jack Grodahl fast-break layup pushed the back to five. The lead didn't last long as junior Jimmy Hammer drained one from downtown, followed by a Bugarinovic layup to stake Hopkins to a 40-38 lead with 14:28 to play.
Shelby Lane tied the game for the fifth time 10 seconds later and then Gaffaney followed with a layup at 13:03 to give CMS back the lead. The teams traded buckets before Pinson and Grodahl sandwiched three-pointers around a McIntyre layup and the Stags led 50-45. Harrington would push the lead to six with a shot from the line but Hopkins came right back with a 9-2 spurt to go up 54-53 on a Williams' three-pointer at 5:20. Scott Lynds responded for the Stags, scoring seven unanswered to give his team a six-point lead at the 3:50 mark.
The Blue Jays got back into it from the charity stripe, converting six straight by Williams and Hammer to tie the game at 60-all with 2:41 to play. Vasiliadis capped the quick 8-0 run with a drive and layup to put JHU up two. Lane ended the run and tied the game with a bucket in the paint at the 1:30-mark, setting up a thrilling finish.
Bugarinovic tied his season-high with 17 points, going 7-of-9 from the field, and grabbing a game-high eight rebounds. Williams punched up a career-high 16 points and dished a career-best five helpers. Gaffaney finished with a game-high 22 points, though he was held to just five in the second half. Lynds also finished in double-figures, chipping in 10 points.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, November 30 as the Blue Jays take on the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Tip-off at Ted Ducey Gymnasium is set for 5:00 pm.