CHESTERTOWN, MD – The 17th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team used a strong second half to beat host Washington College, 72-58, Wednesday night. The Blue Jays improve to 19-5 on the season and 15-2 in the Centennial Conference, while the Shoremen fall to 4-20 overall and 2-15 in the conference.
Trailing 31-26 early in the second half, Hopkins used a 14-2 run to turn a five-point deficit into a seven-point lead by the 9:33-mark. Six Blue Jays scored during the run, capped by back-to-back layups by Brian Johansson and Charlie Jackson. The teams traded buckets over a three-and-a-half-minute span and Hopkins led 47-39. Will Sykes then scored on a put-back, followed by a Brayden Fagbemi three-point play and the was 13 with 4:59 to go in the game.
Kedrick Frink then hit a pair of free throws for the Shoremen, but Jeb Williams answered with a bucket from downtown to stake Hopkins to a 14-point lead. Davis Bland hit a pair of free throws on the other end to make it a 12-point game. Fagbemi made two from the charity stripe, followed by a Sidney Thybulle dunk and a pair of Williams' free throws to push the lead to 18 with 2:43 on the clock. That would do it as the Shoremen could get no closer than 14 in the closing minutes.
This one was a back-and-forth affair early as neither team could take more than a three-point lead in the opening seven minutes. Fagbemi drained a pull-up jumper, followed by a John Windley triple, and the Blue Jays led 17-12 midway through the first. Frink halted the spurt with a layup to kick-start a 9-0 run that saw Washington College grab a 21-17 lead with 4:57 to go in the half. The teams went back to trading scores and the Shoremen took a 28-26 lead into the half.
Windley led Hopkins with 17 points, to go with four assists and four rebounds. Fagbemi finished with 14 points, six boards, two steals and a game-high five assists. Williams also scored 14 points while Thybulle had a team-high seven rebounds.
Hopkins remains in first place in the Centennial Conference with one game to go. The Blue Jays secured a first-round bye with their win tonight.
Hopkins will wrap up the regular season on Saturday against Swarthmore. Tip-off at Goldfarb Gym is slated for 4:00 pm.
Notes: Fagbemi now has 32 steals, tied for third most by a freshman in program history • He is also just the second freshman with more than 90 assists in a season • Thybulle now ranks 10th in JHU history with 365 career defensive rebounds.