Dec. 4, 2002

Box Score

Johns Hopkins senior forward Steve Adams (Butler, PA/Butler) scored 14 points and senior guard Brendan Kamm (Avon, NJ/Somerville) added 12 as the Blue Jay men's basketball team recorded one of the biggest wins in school history by defeating Navy, 66-61, Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.

The Blue Jays led for the final 13:09 and hit six consecutive free throws in the last 33 seconds to secure the win and improve to 5-1 this season. Navy lost its fourth in a row and fell to 2-4. The win marked the first time Hopkins has played and defeated a Division I opponent under head coach Bill Nelson, and was JHU's first-ever against the Midshipmen, who had won the first 17 meetings between the schools.

After the teams battled to a 26-26 tie through the first half, the Midshipmen scored the first six points of the second half on consecutive three-pointers by Jason Jeanpierre and Marcell Cummings. However, the Blue Jays responded with an 8-2 run to tie the game at 34-34 with 15:17 remaining. After Navy took a 39-38 lead, Adams hit a jumper at the 13:09 mark, and the Blue Jays would not trail again.

Hopkins extended its advantage to 46-40 at the 10:22 mark on a lay-up by freshman forward Frank Mason (Silver Spring, MD/Barrie School), who finished with a career-high eight points in 14 minutes of action, but the Midshipmen fought back to within one at 51-50 with 5:40 left.

After a lay-up by Kamm, Navy's Francis Ebong scored and was fouled, but he missed the free throw that would have tied the game. JHU junior guard Kevin Marquez (Oakton, VA/Oakton) then hit one of two foul shots and Adams followed with a jumper, and after a Navy free throw Kamm hit a jumper to give Hopkins a 58-53 lead with 2:18 remaining.

Cummings answered with a lay-up at the 1:23 mark, but JHU senior forward Jay Kreider (Sykesville, MD/River Hill) hit a tough 18-foot jumper as the shot clock was running out to extend the Hopkins lead to five with 50 seconds left. Kreider, Kamm, and Marquez each went 2-for-2 from the line in the final 33 seconds to hold off the Midshipmen.

Kreider finished with 11 points and eight rebounds for the Blue Jays, while senior center Mike Blaine (Washington, DC/Bishop Ireton) scored nine points, pulled down a career-high nine rebounds, and blocked three shots.

Jeanpierre led all scorers with 17 points and Cummings added 11 for Navy, while Ebong grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. The Midshipmen out-rebounded the Blue Jays 43-35, but Hopkins shot 51.1 percent from the floor while holding Navy to 33.3 percent, including 6-of-26 from behind the arc.

The Blue Jays open Centennial Conference action Saturday when Hopkins hosts Haverford at 1 p.m.

Box Score:                                1       2           FJohns Hopkins (5-1)         26      40      -   66Navy (2-4)                  26      35      -   61