Jan. 11, 2005

Box Score

HAVERFORD, PA - Senior Mark Gabriel scored a career-high 34 points and banked home a rebound as time expired in overtime to lift the Haverford College men's basketball team to an 82-80 victory over visiting Johns Hopkins Tuesday night. The Fords won for the second time in their last three games and improve to 3-7 overall, 2-3 in the Centennial Conference, while the Blue Jays had a three-game winning streak snapped and fall to 6-5, 3-2 in the Centennial.

After battling to a 73-73 tie at the end of regulation, the Blue Jays scored the first four points of overtime on a pair of free throws from senior Eric Toback and sophomore Danny Nawrocki in the first two minutes of the extra session. The Fords managed just two points in the first four minutes of overtime and trailed 78-75 after another Nawrocki free throw, but exploded for seven points in the final 53 seconds to steal the win.

Johnny Elefterakis made his only three-pointer of the game with 53 seconds remaining in overtime to tie the game and a pair of Gabriel free throws with 27 seconds remaining gave Haverford its first two-point lead since the first half at 80-78. Hopkins tied the game at 80 with 10 seconds remaining when Toback rebounded a missed three-pointer by freshman Terence Coppola and scored on the put-back. With no timeouts remaining, the Fords quickly worked the ball up the court and Elefterakis misfired on a three-pointer, but Gabriel grabbed the rebound and banked home the game-winner to hand the Blue Jays their second straight loss at Alumni Fieldhouse.

It didn't look like the game would get to overtime as Hopkins built a slim three-point halftime lead to as many as 11 at 62-51 with less than nine minutes remaining. The Blue Jays still held an eight-point lead with just under seven minutes remaining as Coppola scored 11 of his 19 points and junior Bobby Sharafeddin scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, but the Fords kept cutting into the lead and a pair of Gabriel free throws gave the Fords a 69-68 lead with 2:21 remaining. The lead changed hands three times in the final two minutes before a layup by Elefterakis tied the game at 73-73 with one minute remaining. Toback and Nawrocki both had shots to win it in th final 30 seconds, but misfired to send the game to overtime, where Gabriel's heroics pulled it out.

Gabriel hit 11-of-18 shots from the floor, 12-of-14 from the free throw line and added a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with his 34 points. Matt Stein added 14 points and Elefterakis chipped in with 11 points and seven assists to lead the way.

Coppola led the Blue Jays with 19 points and hit 4-of-7 from three-point range, Nawrocki added 17 points and eight rebounds and Toback added 11 points and 10 caroms. Sharafeddin hit 5-of-6 from the floor to account for his 13 points off the bench.

Johns Hopkins will next be in action on Thursday when the Blue Jays play at Muhlenberg.