YORK, PA – The 12th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team held off a tough York team for a 64-62 non-conference road win Wednesday night. The Blue Jays even their record at 2-2, while the Spartans suffer their first loss and slip to 2-1.
Trailing 52-43 with 6:58 to play, freshman Brayden Fagbemi drained a three, then hit a pair of free throws to spark 10-2 run. Following a Kai Cipalla layup, Fagbemi converted a three-point play, followed by a Sidney Thybulle dunk and then a John Windley triple and Hopkins led 56-54 at the 4:17-mark.
Chris Miers and Jackson Mascari sandwiched scores around a pair of free throws from graduate student Carson James and the teams were knotted at 58. After a Blue Jay turnover, Thybulle stuffed a Jayden Rowe layup and JHU went the other way. James then hit from downtown to put Hopkins up 61-58 and it would never trail again, though this one came down to the wire.
Miers and Fagbemi each went two-for-two from the charity stripe and it remained a three-point game with 17 ticks on the clock. The Blue Jays got a defensive stop and then Windley made one of two from the line to push the lead to four. Rowe raced to the basket to slice the deficit in half, but with just 1.1 seconds to play, that would do it.
York jumped out to a 6-2 lead before freshman Jeb Williams got Hopkins going with a jumper in the paint. That kick-started a 10-0 run as the Blue Jays grabbed a 12-6 lead on a Brian Johansson three-pointer. The Spartans came right back with a 7-2 spurt to pull back within one at the 8:14-mark. Hopkins responded with six straight points to go up 20-13, but York would close the half on a 14-7 run to make it 27-all at the break.
The Spartans came out on fire to start the second and pushed out to a 36-28 lead less than three minutes in. Fagbemi halted the run with a triple, but Rowe answered with a layup, followed by a Cipalla three and the lead was 10 with 13:33 to go. The teams traded runs for nearly seven minutes and York led 52-43. The Blue Jays would go on to outscore the Spartans 21-10 over the final seven minutes to grab the win.
Fagebemi led the Blue Jays with 19 points, including going 8-of-11 from the line. He also had six rebounds to go with two assists and two steals. Windley added 11 points and five boards while Williams chipped in 10 and four. Thybulle grabbed six rebound and matched his career high with four blocks. Cipalla scored a game-high 28 points for the Spartans and had seven boards. Rowe also finished in double figures with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Mascari had a game-high nine rebounds, including eight defensive.
Hopkins wraps up a four-game road swing on Saturday as the Blue Jays visit defending national champion Christopher Newport. Tip-off at the Freeman Center is scheduled for 4:00 pm.
Notes: Thybulle now has 91 career blocks and needs just one to tie Mike Lattimore for 10th in program history.