BALTIMORE, MD – The 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team needed another big comeback on Wednesday to keep its win streak alive. The Blue Jays rallied from 17 points down to defeat the Gettysburg Bullets, 66-54, in Centennial Conference action. Hopkins wins its 17th-straight game to improve to 20-2 on the season and 14-1 in the CC. Gettysburg loses its fifth straight to fall to 11-11 overall and 7-8 in the conference.
This one looked awfully familiar for the Blue Jays as they found themselves in a big second-half hole for the second straight game. Gettysburg took its biggest lead of the game on a Sean Gordon jumper with 18:19 to play that capped a 13-2 run that had bridged halftime. Senior Jimmy Hammer finally got Hopkins on the board in the second stanza as he sank a pair of shots from the charity stripe at the 17:53-mark. He then drained a pull-up three-pointer from the top of the key and the Blue Jays were off and running.
Senior Omar Randall connected on a 15-footer, followed by a three from junior Gene Williams and just like that the lead was down to seven with 15:47 to play. Sophomore Ryan Curran hit the back-end of a pair of free throws and then hit a fast-break layup to make it a four-point game. Both offenses stalled for nearly four minutes until a Hammer bucket from downtown on a George Bugarinovic kick-out pulled Hopkins within one. Bugarinovic then put the punctuation on a 20-0 run with back-to-back layups to put the Jays up 41-38 with 9:37 to go.
Kevin Gladstone and Pete Christ finally ended the Bullets' scoring drought with a pair of jumpers to swing the lead back in the visitors' favor. Gladstone's bucket at 9:19 ended a scoreless drought of 8:57 for Gettysburg. Curran answered with four straight free throws to give Hopkins a 45-42 lead. The teams then traded buckets as the lead seesawed up and down. Following a Gordon bucket that made it a one-point game, Hammer converted an old-fashioned three-point play to ignite a quick 7-0 run that saw the Jays' lead swell to eight by the 3:11-mark.
Gettysburg got back within four thanks to a Gladstone three-pointer and then a free, but that's as close as the Bullets would get. Senior Luke Chambers pushed the lead back to seven with a triple with 1:41 to play and Hopkins would go 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the final 43 seconds to seal the win.
The first 12 minutes were closely contested there were six lead changes as well as three ties. Williams converted a layup with 8:12 to go in the half that cut Gettysburg's lead to two at 15-13. The Bullets answered with straight points to go up by eight just three minutes later. Three times, the Blue Jays got within six, but each time the Bullets answered. Leading 25-19, Gettysburg closed out the half on a 6-2 spurt, capped by a Alex Kaslander three-pointer that saw the visitors take a 31-21 lead at the break. The Bullets picked up right where they off, scoring the first seven points of the second half to take a 17-point lead.
Hammer finished with 20 points, his second straight 20-point outing and his sixth this year. His two three-pointers on the night give him 232 for his career, two shy of tying Andy Enfield's all-time Johns Hopkins record. Bugarinovic posted his fourth double-double of the season, as he finished with 14 points and 10 boards. Curran also finished in double figures with 14 points. Gladstone led the Bullets with a game-high 22 points as the only Bullet in double digits. In the second half, Hopkins shot 57.1 percent from the field and outrebounded Gettysburg, 21-10, as the Blue Jays outscored the Bullets, 45-23.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, February 14 as the Blue Jays travel to Carlisle, PA to take on ninth-ranked Dickinson. Tip-off at the Kline Center is slated for 4:00 pm.