BALTIMORE, MD – The 18th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team got a career-high 22 points from sophomore Ryan Curran as the Blue Jays won their school record 14th straight game in a 96-54 win over the Haverford Fords Saturday afternoon. Hopkins improved to 17-2 overall and 11-1 in the Centennial Conference while Haverford falls to 4-15 on the season and 2-10 in the CC. In the 14th annual Wall-O'Mahony game, Curran was named the Blue Jays' MVP while Matt Sherman earned the honor for the Fords.
Hopkins jumped out to a 20-5 lead and never looked back. Curran got the Blue Jays going, scoring seven of their first 12 points as JHU went up 12-2. A Gibby Graves free throw ended the 10-0 run by Hopkins, but senior Jimmy Hammer and junior Austin Vasiliadis answered by sandwiching three-pointers around a bucket by James Levine and Hopkins led 18-5. Vasiliadis followed with a drive and score to push the lead to 15. Walt Plumlee hit a bucket from downtown to make it a 12-point game with 13:39 to play.
Back-to-back baskets by Curran then sparked a 13-3 Hopkins run as the Blue Jays built their lead to 22 by the 8:34-mark. Four different Blue Jays scored during the run, which was capped by a dunk from junior Matt Billups that gave Hopkins a 33-11 lead. An Anthony Reyes three made it a 19-point game, but the Blue Jays came right back with six unanswered points. Reyes and Gibby Graves cut it to 21 with 4:58 to play with consecutive baskets, but once again Hopkins answered with a 10-2 spurt to take a 28 points lead with 1:08 to go. Haverford would three points back before the half with a bucket from downtown from Sherman.
Justin Winkler scored the first bucket of the half for the Fords, making it a 23-point game. That's as close as the visitors would get for the remainder of the game as the Blue Jays led by no less than 23.
Curran led all scorers with a career-high 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting, while grabbing seven rebounds, handing out three assists and blocking three shots in just 19 minutes of action. Senior George Bugarinovic punched up 16 points to go along with six rebounds and one block. Freshman Kyle Doran added a career-high 11 points while junior Austin Vasiliadis handed out seven assists. Sherman finished with a team-high 14 points, 12 of which came from three-point. Graves finished with 11 points and seven boards, while Lucas Colombo added 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Hopkins hits the road next week as the Blue Jays travel to Lancaster, PA to take on 20th-ranked Franklin & Marshall. Tip-off at the Mayser Center is slated for 8:00 pm.