ALLENTOWN, PA – Sophomore Jimmy Hammer scored a game-high 18 points and classmate George Bugarinovic posted a double-double to lead Johns Hopkins to a 63-59 win over host Muhlenberg in Centennial Conference action Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays improve to 12-7 overall and 8-4 in the conference as they now sit alone in third place in the standings. The Mules fall to 11-8 overall and 7-5 in the Centennial Conference and are tied for fourth with Gettysburg.
Muhlenberg rallied from an eight-point deficit at the 16:10 mark of the second half to tie the game just three minutes later. Malique Killing drained a pull-up three-pointer to kick start a 10-2 Mules run that saw them eventually tie the game at 39 apiece. Senior Adam Spengler put the Blue Jays back on top at 11:18 with a three-pointer from the corner and the Jays would not trail again, though not without some excitement.
Killing cut the deficit back to one but Spengler and freshman Austin Vasiliadis got back-to-back layups to push the lead to five. But a quick 5-2 burst by the Mules once again made it a two-point game. Hopkins came right back with buckets from freshman Gene Williams and Bugarinovic and it was a 52-46 game with 4:23 to play. Matt O'Hara and Killing then sandwiched points around a Williams' jumper to cut it back to a four-point game. Williams got another big bucket coming out of a Muhlenberg time out, this time scoring from deep.
The Mules responded with a triple from O'Hara and a Curry jumper to cut it right back to two with just 1:03 to play. After back-to-back timeouts, Hammer drained a big pull-up jumper with 31.5 on the clock. After a pair of missed layups on the offensive end, Brandon Bovino drew a foul and went to the line with 21.8 to play. He hit both of his shots and Hopkins' lead was two. Hammer was fouled on the inbounds and calmly hit both of his shots. On the other end, Alec Stavetski was fouled on a three-point shot and went to the line with 10.2 seconds on the clock. He hit his first two shots but missed the third and Hammer grabbed the rebound. He once again went to the line and converted both shots to stake Hopkins to a four-point advantage. Killing would get one shot off from three point with time running down, but his shot missed the mark and Bugarinovic grabbed the rebound.
It was a good one from the start as the teams traded buckets over the first three and a half minutes and Muhlenberg led 9-6. Hammer then hit a bucket from downtown to ignite a quick 10-0 run as the Blue Jays took a 16-9 lead on a Hammer jumper at the 11:04 mark. The Mules were able to get within one three times over the ensuing five minutes, but each time the Jays answered. Junior Daniel Corbett hit a three-pointer at 5:43 to push the lead back to three and Hopkins closed the half on a 12-5 spurt. The Blue Jays led 33-25 at the half as freshman Matt Chiusano capped the first-half scoring with a baseline jumper with three seconds to play.
Hammer finished with a game-high 18 points while also grabbing six boards and handing out two assists. Bugarinovic punched up 12 points and corralled 12 boards to go with three assists and one block. Kevin Hargrove led three Mules in double figures with 17 points and 14 rebounds while Bovino added 15 points and 12 boards. Killing, the leading scorer in the conference with 21.2 points per game, was held to just 11 points and had his streak of five consecutive games with 20 or more points broken.
Hopkins returns to action on Thursday, January 31 as the Blue Jays host one of the hottest teams in the conference, the Gettysburg Bullets. Tip off is set for 8:00 pm at Goldfarb Gym.