BALTIMORE, MD – The 13^th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team shot a scorching 75.9 percent from the field in the second half en route to an 89-60 win over Franklin & Marshall Wednesday night.
 
The Blue Jays improve to 13-3 overall and 7-2 in the Centennial Conference. The Diplomats fall to 8-8 on the season, including 3-6 in the conference.
 
After a back-and-forth first half that saw six ties and eight lead changes, this one was decided in the final 11 minutes. Franklin & Marshall had sliced Hopkins' lead in half with back-to-back three-pointers from Mark Suchy and Omar Nichols to make it a 56-50 game with 10:47 to play.
 
Graduate student Tom Quarry drained three straight three-pointers to spark a stunning 25-3 run that saw the Blue Jays' lead balloon to 28 in just five minutes and 40 seconds. Hopkins went 11-of-12 from the field during the run and saw six different players score. Quarry capped the run with a driving layup to put Hopkins on top 81-53.
 
The Diplomats could get no closer than 25 over the final 5:07 as the Blue Jays would go on to close out the 89-60 win.
 
The first half was a different story with those six ties and eight lead changes. In fact, neither team led by more than five points for the first 22 minutes. Hopkins took the lead, for good as it turned out, with 2:36 to play in the first half on a Quarry jumper. Senior Carson James then converted a steal into a fast-break layup and the lead was three. Suchy cut it back to one with a turnaround jumper in the paint, but a John Windley layup with two ticks on the clock sent Hopkins into the half with a 37-34 lead.
 
Nichols and John Seidman sandwiched buckets around a Windley layup in the opening 82 seconds of the half and the Blue Jays led 39-38. Senior Sidney Thybulle answered with back-to-back buckets, followed by a pair of James' layups and just like that the lead was nine with 15:37 to play.
 
Kevin Nowoswiat scored on a jumper in the paint to ignite a 6-2 spurt that saw the Diplomats trim the lead to five just over two minutes later. The Blue Jays answered quickly with triples from sophomore Brian Johansson and Quarry, capped by a Jayden Nixon free throw to put JHU up 56-44 at the 11:33-mark. That's when F&M got three-pointers from Suchy and Nichols to pull the Dips within six before the Blue Jays' made that stunning run.
 
Quarry finished with a game-high 26 points, going 6-of-12 from downtown, including 4-of-7 in the second half. Thybulle had a game-high 10 rebounds, while Windley finished with 14 points. James added 12 points and a game-high five assists. Johansson scored 11 points and also grabbed seven boards. Nichols led the Diplomats with 13 points. Suchy added 10 points and a team-best eight rebounds. Riiny Giir also finished in double figures with 12 points.
 
Hopkins shot an impressive 57.4 percent from the field for the game, including 75.9 percent in the second half. The Blue Jays' nine-game win streak against the Diplomats is their longest in the history of the series, which began in 1947.
 
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, January 21 as the Blue Jays visit the Muhlenberg Mules. Tip-off at Memorial Hall is slated for 4:00 pm.  
 
Notes: Thybulle is now tied for 15^th in school history with 60 career blocks • Quarry moved into 14^th place in JHU history in career scoring with 1,056 points • Quarry is also now fifth in JHU history with 183 career three-pointers.