BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's basketball team had 14 players score en route to an 84-57 win over visiting Swarthmore in Centennial Conference (CC) action Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays win their eighth straight game as they improve to 11-2 overall and 5-1 in the CC. The Garnet meanwhile slip to 6-7 on the season and 2-4 in the conference. Senior George Bugarinovic led the Blue Jays with a game-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
Leading by 15 at the half, Hopkins opened the second with 10 unanswered points in the first 1:52 of the period, prompting a Swarthmore timeout. Bugarinovic opened the second-half scoring with a bucket in the paint and junior Austin Vasiliadis fueled the run with a pair of three-pointers as Hopkins took a 49-24 lead at the 18:08-mark. The Garnet ended the run with a pair of Jim Lammers' free throws to make it a 23-point game. The teams traded baskets over the ensuing three minutes and the Blue Jays led 55-32 with 14:51 to play.
Just three days earlier, Hopkins held a 24-point second-half lead over Haverford and saw that lead evaporate by the final minute. The Blue Jays weren't going to let that happen again as their lead did not dip below 23 and swelled to as much as 32 before the final buzzer. Though the Garnet shot 47.6 percent from the field in the second half, the Blue Jays forced 15 turnovers and shot 58.6 percent themselves during the period to build on its 15-point half-time lead.
Hopkins opened the game with a 10-2 run, led by Bugarinovic who scored six of the Jays' first eight points. Swarthmore got things going with back-to-back threes from Matt Brennan and Karl Barkley as the Garnet pulled within three at the 14:04-mark. Hopkins answered the Swarthmore run with five quick points to push the lead back to eight on a Vasiliadis jumper at 10:48. The Garnet kept hanging around, using a Luke McCartin three and a Andrew Kaufman jumper to pull within four just two minutes later.
But Hopkins once again answered, as a Luke Chambers layup sparked a 13-2 Blue Jay run that saw the lead balloon to 15 with 6:03 to play in the half. Four different players scoring during the run, led by senior Jimmy Hammer's two three-pointers. McCartin hit a bucket in the paint at the 3:45-mark to end a drought of more than five minutes without a field goal by the Garnet and make it a 34-21 game.
The Blue Jays responded with back-to-back layups by senior Omar Randall and Bugarinovic to push the lead to 17 two minutes later. Kaufman converted a layup on the ensuing Garnet possession and junior Matt Billups and Brennan traded free throws to account for the 39-24 lead at the half.
Bugarinovic scored his game-high 19 points in just 21 minutes while sophomore Ryan Curran added 15 points, three assists and four steals in 16 minutes. Hammer dished a game-high five assists and chipped in eight points in just 19 minutes of action. Zack Yonda was the only Garnet player to finish in double figures as he scored 12 points. Michael Rubayo grabbed a game-high seven rebounds as Swarthmore won the battle of the boards, 34-31. Hopkins shot 55.9 percent from the field for the game, including 50.0 percent from three-point, while turning it over just nine times. Swarthmore converted 42.2 percent of its shots but turned the ball over 27 times.
Hopkins returns to action on Wednesday as the Blue Jays wrap up a three-game homestand against the fourth-ranked Dickinson Red Devils. Tip-off at Goldfarb Gym is slated for 8:00 pm.