WESTMINSTER, Md. – McDaniel put together a 21-4 run in the second half to turn a six-point deficit into an 11-point advantage, defeating Johns Hopkins 61-57 in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball victory on Tuesday.
Phillip Perry (Crownsville, Md./Annapolis Area Christian) recorded 14 points and six rebounds to lead the Green Terror (14-4, 9-2 CC), who by virtue of the win and losses by Dickinson and Franklin & Marshall are tied with the Red Devils for first place in the conference standings with seven games to play.
Jimmy Hammer paced the Blue Jays (10-8, 7-4 CC) with 15 points. George Bugarinovic and Connor McIntyre chipped in 10 points apiece.
Trailing 37-31, Jimmy Cranwell (Brick, N.J./Rumson-Fair Haven) hit a pair of free throws with 11:18 to play to close the deficit to four.
A Perry fast-break layup and basket from Cameron Royster (Derwood, Md./Magruder) knotted the game 1:49 later before a Nick Perugino (Lewes, Del./Salesianum) jumper with 8:46 on the clock put McDaniel back in front for the first time the 3:03 mark of the second half.
Two Royster free throws stretched the lead to four before Perry capped a 12-0 portion of the run with 7:06 showing.
Two Bugarinovic free throws closed the margin to 45-41 before five straight points from Perry and a Cranwell jumper stretched he lead to its largest of the game.
A Daniel Corbett 3-pointer and two Hammer free throws trimmed the margin to six with 1:29 to play before it became a free-throw shooting contest.
The Green Terror went 9-for-12 from the charity stripe over the final 1:19 to hold the Blue Jays at arm's length and run its current winning streak to seven games.
A Duane Echols (Jessup, Md./Hammond) 3-pointer and Andrew Merlo (Rehoboth, Del./Cape Henlopen) layup staked McDaniel to a 5-0 lead in the game's first 1:18.
A Niko Kotoulas layup and Gene Williams triple knotted the game with 15:14 to play before converted a three-point play and Wesley Brooks (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) drained a 3-pointer to spark a 14-4 run that gave the hosts a double-digit advantage with 7:46 to play.
Johns Hopkins, however, closed the half on a 20-5 run, including seven straight points, to take a 29-24 lead into the break.
Merlo and Royster finished with 11 points each while Brooks added four assists and four rebounds to his six points.
The Green Terror returns to action at Muhlenberg on Saturday. Game time is 4 p.m.
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