NEW YORK, NY – Host and ninth-ranked New York University hit five of six free throws in the final 39 seconds to seal a 71-67 win over the 12th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team Saturday night in the opening game of the Scholars Classic. The Blue Jays slip to 1-1 on the season while the Violets improve to 2-0.
Trailing by seven with 2:42 to play, graduate student Sidney Thybulle hit a pair of free throws to spark an 8-2 run as the Blue Jays sliced the deficit to one. Following a Carson James jumper, junior John Windley scored four straight and it was 66-65 with 49 ticks on the clock. Hampton Sanders answered with two free throws to push the lead back to three, but James came right back with a bucket on the other end.
Spencer Freedman then made one of two from the line and JHU had the ball down two with 15 seconds to play. The Blue Jay came up empty however and Cinque Stephens then made both of his free throws to secure the win.
NYU jumped out to an 8-2 lead by the 15:47-mark. Windley got Hopkins back into with eight unanswered, including back-to-back triples, as JHU took a 10-8 lead at 13:55. Quinn Clark put an end to the run with one of two free throws, but it was temporary. James answered on the other end with a three-pointer to ignite a 12-0 run as the Blue Jays pushed out to a 22-9 lead, capped by a Thybulle bucket in the paint.
The Violets responded with a run of their own, outscoring the Jays 19-2, over a nearly eight-minute span to go up 28-24. Six players scored during the run, which was capped by a Sanders triple to stake NYU to a four-point lead with 2:35 to play. Freshman Jeb Williams and Windley sandwiched buckets around a Sanders jumper and it was a two-point game at the 49-second mark. Sanders hit from downtown again to push the lead to five, but a James layup late sent NYU to the half with a 33-30 lead.
The teams traded buckets to open the second and the deficit was still three with two and a half minutes gone. Emmanuel Onuama then scored three straight points to ignite a 13-4 spurt as NYU pushed out to a 50-38 lead at the 13:18-mark. Sanders fueled the run with the final eight points, including back-to-back three-pointers. Hopkins came right back with a 14-3 run to slice the deficit to just one with 8:08 on the clock.
The Violets and Blue Jays swapped scores over the ensuing five and a half minutes until back-to-back buckets from Clark. That put NYU up 64-57 with 2:42 to play, setting the stage for one last push by Hopkins.
James led Hopkins with a game-high 21 points and grabbed five rebounds. Windley was the only other Blue Jay in double figures, as he scored 20 points. Thybulle had a team-high seven boards to go with seven points, two assists, two steals and a block. Sanders paced the Violets with 18 points, with 12 of those coming from downtown. Freedman added 12 points and handed out seven assists. Onuama posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Clark just missed a double-double with eight points and 10 boards.
Hopkins returns to action on Sunday, November 12 as the Blue Jays take on 22nd-ranked Washington University. Tip-off at The Paulson Center is slated for 2:00 pm.
Notes: The last time the Blue Jays had two players with 20 or more points, was December 30, 2022 • The was the first meeting between Hopkins and NYU since January 5, 2001 – when the Blue Jays were still members of the UAA.