LEXINGTON, VA – Johns Hopkins beat host Washington & Lee, 61-48, to win the W&L Holiday Tournament on Tuesday night in Lexington. The Blue Jays outscored the Generals, 29-17, in the second half en route to winning its second tournament title of the season. The win is the Jays' fourth straight as they improve to 7-2 while the Generals fall to 3-8. Senior Jimmy Hammer earned tournament MVP honors and sophomore Ryan Curran earned all-tournament honors.
Hopkins used an 8-1 run late in the first half to turn a three-point deficit into a four-point lead with 11 seconds to play. A Curran layup ignited the run that saw the Blue Jays go up 32-28 before a late deep three from Andrew Franz made it just a one-point game at the half. Curran opened the second half with back-to-back buckets on a dunk and a fast-break layup to push the Blue Jays' lead to five at the 18:48-mark. Hammer then sandwiched a pull-up jumper and a three-pointer around a Clayton Murtha bucket and the lead was 41-33.
Darren Douglas trimmed the deficit back to six but Hopkins answered with a triple from junior Austin Vasiliadis and a fast-break layup by Hammer to build the lead to 11 with 12:55 to play. Washington & Lee came right back with a seven-point run, capped by a three from Jim Etling and the lead was just four with 10 minutes to go. The teams went back-and-forth over the ensuing five minutes and Hopkins led 51-46. Curran then hit consecutive layups to kick-start a game-ending 10-2 run that saw the Blue Jays' lead swell to 13 by the final buzzer. Hammer sealed the win by making four straight free throws in the final 41 seconds and cap an 18-point outing.
It was back-and-forth for much of the first half as the lead seesawed between the Blue Jays and the Generals. There were three ties and eight lead changes in the first 18 minutes of the game. Trailing 9-7, Washington & Lee scored seven unanswered points in just over two minutes to go up 14-9 by the 10:56-mark. Douglas and Patrick O'Connor did most of the damage with back-to-back threes. Hopkins answered with 10-2 spurt that saw the Jays take a 19-16 lead on a three-pointer from senior Luke Chambers. The lead fluctuated from one to three over the subsequent two minutes and Hopkins led 23-20 with 5:08 to play in the half. The Generals retook the lead just 90 seconds later on a triple from Franz, who then pushed the lead to three with a bucket in the paint. Hopkins responded with that 8-1 run as the visitors took the lead for good on a Matt Chiusano layup at 1:30.
Hammer led all scorers with 18 points, while Curran punched up a career-high 17 points and grabbed a game and career-best eight boards. The Blue Jays shot 45.8 percent from the floor for the game, including a hot 57.9 percent showing in the first half. The Generals shot 40.4 percent for the game but were just 34.8 percent in the second half as the Jays outscored them by 12 in the period. Franz led W&L with 15 points off the bench and Murtha chipped in 13.
Hopkins returns to action on Friday, January 2 as JHU hosts the 24th annual Blue Jay Invitational. Hopkins will face Kenyon in the second game off the night Friday with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 pm at Goldfarb Gym. Randolph and Hood will square off in the first game at 6:00 pm.