The Basics
• Score: #13 Johns Hopkins-80, #18 Swarthmore-66
• Records: JHU (22-3) • SC (22-5)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • Goldfarb Gym
• The Short Story: The 13^th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team led wire to wire en route to an 80-66 win over 18^th-ranked Swarthmore to win its second straight Centennial Conference championship.  
 
How it Happened
• Leading by one with 16:06 to play in the half, sophomore Will Sykes scored off Garnet turnover to spark a 10-2 run as the Blue Jays pushed out to a 17-8 lead. Graduate student Conner Delaney capped the run with a driving layup at 13:05. The teams traded buckets over a three-minute span and Hopkins led 21-16 at the 8:08-mark.
• Seniors Tom Quarry and Braeden Johnson then drained back-to-back three-pointers and just like that the lead was 11. The lead seesawed up and down over the ensuing two minutes and the lead was eight after a George Visconti three-point play. Johnson answered with a triple, followed by a Delaney driving layup to push the Jays' lead to 13 with 2:34 to go.
• Once again the teams traded scores and the lead was back down to eight just 68 seconds later. Junior Sidney Thybulle got a bucket in the paint, but Visconti answered with two free throws. Delaney had the final say of the half, draining a pull-up three with 20 ticks on the clock to send Hopkins into the half with 45-33 lead.
• Swarthmore opened the second with a Michael Caprise layup and a Vinny DeAngelo jumper to pull within eight. Junior Carson James responded with a three-pointer to ignite a 10-0 Blue Jay run that saw the lead balloon to 18 with 16:17 to play.
• The lead fluctuated over the next six and a half minutes, but the Garnet could get no closer than 13 during that span. After a George Corzine layup made it a 65-49 game, Johnson and Quarry answered with back-to-back triples and in a blink the lead was up to 22.
• The Garnet made one last push, using a late 7-0 run to trim the deficit to 13 with 54 seconds to play, but they could get no closer.  
 
What it Means
• Hopkins avenges a pair of regular season losses to Swarthmore to improve to 81-45 all-time against the Garnet.
• This was the fourth straight meeting between JHU and Swarthmore in the conference championship, with the Blue Jays winning three of those. This is Hopkins' sixth Centennial Tournament title and third under head coach Josh Loeffler. JHU wins the tournament at home for the first time since 2007 and just the second overall.
 
Inside the Box Score
• Delaney led all scorers with 23 points and added six assists to earn tournament MVP honors for the second straight year. In three Centennial Conference title game appearances, he averaged 22.6 points, 5.3 assists and 2.6 rebounds. Delaney's sixth assist of the game, with 6:40 to play, was the 400^th of his career, breaking Dave Eikenberg's JHU record. The record had stood since 1991.
• James (16 points) and Quarry (11 points) also finished in double figures and had four rebounds each. Thybulle posted his third straight double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
• DeAngelo led three Garnet players in double figures with 20 points. Visconti finished with 13 and Conor Harkins added 10. Caprise and Aidan Godfrey led Swarthmore with six rebounds apiece.
 
Up Next
• Hopkins will learn its NCAA Tournament fate on Monday, February 28 at 12:30 pm with the announcement of the bracket live on NCAA.com.