COLLEGEVILLE, PA – The Johns Hopkins men's basketball team blocked a pair of shots in the final four seconds to secure a 67-66 win at Ursinus on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference (CC) action. The Blue Jays snap a six-game losing streak at Helfferich Hall as they improve to 8-7 overall and 5-3 in the CC. The Bears fall to 2-13 overall and 0-8 in the conference with the loss.
Junior Jimmy Hammer drained a three-pointer with 2:07 to play in the game to put Hopkins up 67-64. Ryan Adams cashed in a Mark Wonderling offensive rebound for a lay-up 36 seconds later to make it a one-point game. The Blue Jays turned it over on the ensuing possession, giving the Bears the ball with 58 ticks on the clock. Jesse Krasna tried for a three and missed but Wonderling got the board. Adams then drove the paint but senior Connor McIntyre rejected his shot with four seconds to go. The ball sailed out of bounds to Ursinus and the home team called timeout to set up one more play. Krasna tried a jumper in the paint as time expired, but this time it was junior George Bugarinovic with the block to seal Hopkins first win in Collegeville since January 11, 2007.
Trailing by four early, sophomore Gene Williams hit a three-pointer to make it a 6-5 game just over three minutes in. But the Bears answered with a 14-5 run, sparked by consecutive triples by Wonderling and Krasna, as Ursinus pushed out to a 20-10 lead with 12:13 to go in the opening half. Sophomore Matt Chiusano bookended an Austin Vasiliadis three-pointer with a pair of jumpers and just like that the lead was three with 9:50 on the clock. Ursinus answered and twice pushed its lead to as much as seven in the ensuing six minutes.
After a Wonderling tip-in gave Ursinus a 32-25 lead, sophomore Niko Kotoulas hit a lay-up, followed by back-to-back jumpers by Bugarinovic and Hammer to make it a one-point game as the clock ticked under two. But Draper hit one of two free throws and then a lay-up following a Hopkins miss on the other end to give Ursinus a 35-31 lead at the half.
The teams traded triples to open the second half and Ursinus still led by four. But a lay-up by McIntyre and a bucket from downtown by Hammer gave Hopkins its first lead of the game at 15:23. The lead would change hands eight more times in the next three and a half minutes before the Bears strung together eight unanswered points to push out to a 53-47 lead with 11:19 to go. Vasiliadis then hit back-to-back three-pointers just 41 seconds apart and the teams were tied at 53 points apiece. The teams continued to go back-and-forth as the largest lead in the final 11 minutes of the game was just three points. Hammer's three-pointer with 2:07 to go broke a 64-all time and ended nearly a two-minute scoring drought for both teams.
Bugarinovic scored 14 points to lead three Blue Jays in double figures, while also handing out five assists and blocking two shots. Vasiliadis finished with career-highs of 12 points and four three-pointer field goals in just 15 minutes, while Hammer chipped in 11 points. McIntyre also blocked a pair of shots, including the 100th of his career, to become just the sixth player in program history to reach the milestone. All five Ursinus starters finished in double figures, led by Krasna with a game-high 15 points. Wonderling added a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.
Hopkins returns home for the first time in two weeks on Wednesday, January 22 as the Blue Jays host the Washington College Shoremen. Tip-off for the CC contest is slated for 8:00 pm at Goldfarb Gym.