BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's basketball team opened the second half of its 2023-24 schedule by topping the University of Rochester, 72-53, in Goldfarb Gymnasium Tuesday afternoon.  The win is the fourth straight for the Blue Jays, who improve to 6-4 on the year with the victory.  The Yellowjackets had won two straight and four of their last five entering the game and slip to 6-5 with the loss.
 
The Blue Jays had turned a 33-26 halftime lead into a 46-34 advantage with just over 14 minutes remaining on a pair of Will Sykes free throws, but the 'Jackets responded with a quick 8-2 spurt to trim the deficit to six at 48-42; Matt Wiele scored six of his game-high 19 points during the run for Rochester.
 
The Blue Jays took control from there as Hopkins used a 22-4 run over the next seven minutes to turn the 48-42 lead into a 70-46 advantage.  Six different players scored for the Blue Jays during the run and Hopkins hit four from beyond the arc to fuel the game-deciding spree.
 
Freshman Jeb Williams jump-started the run for Johns Hopkins as he scored the first seven Blue Jay points on a pair of layups and three-pointer in a span of less than 90 seconds to help push the lead to 55-44.  Still nursing a 12-point lead (58-46) as the lock clock dripped towards the six-minute mark, it was a three-pointer from graduate student Tommy O'Neil that ignited a 12-0 run that put the game away as Hopkins pushed out to the 70-46 lead with 3:09 remaining on the second-half clock.  A three-pointer from freshman Brayden Fagbemi closed the spurt for the Blue Jays.
 
Although they led for more than 18 minutes in the first half, the Blue Jays couldn't quite pull away from the Yellowjackets in the opening 20 minutes.  After trading baskets early, Johns Hopkins used back-to-back layups from Windley and Carson James to grab an 11-4 lead, but Rochester responded by scoring seven of the next eight points to trim the margin to 12-9 with just under 12 minutes left in the half; Wiele was the catalyst in this run as well as he accounted for five of the seven UR points.
 
The teams battled evenly until Hopkins got back-to-back three-pointers from Windley and Williams to push out to its largest lead of the first half at 12 (26-14), but the Yellowjackets responded with a 12-2 run of their own to trim the margin to 28-26 with 2:23 remaining in the first half.  Wiele scored the first five points of the run for Rochester and a Logan Jagodzinski jumper ended it; as it turned out, that was the last time the Yellowjackets were within a basket as Windley drained a three-pointer of his own and Fagbemi closed the first-half scoring with a layup in the final 30 seconds to account for the 33-26 halftime score.
 
Windley led the Blue Jays with 17 points, while Fagbemi recorded the first double-double of his career with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.  Williams chipped in with 12 points on a 5-of-7 shooting and the trio combined to go 7-of-11 from three-point range.
 
The Blue Jays held a 44-36 advantage on the glass and shot well from beyond the arc (10-of-23 / .435) and the free throw line (14-of-17 / .824) to fuel the victory.  In the second half alone, the Blue Jays were 6-of-12 (.500) from three-point range and hit 11-of-12 (.917) free throws.
 
Wiele was the only Yellowjacket to reach double figures as he scored the game-high 19 points and added five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks.  Jagodzinski entered the game as Rochester's leading scorer at 16.0 points per game and had scored 28 points in Rochester's last game, but the Blue Jays held him to a season-low seven points in the victory.
 
The Blue Jays will return to action on Saturday, January 6 when they welcome Ursinus to Goldfarb Gym.  Tipoff for the Centennial Conference matchup is set for 3 pm.