Box Score Jan. 15, 2005
Box Score
BALTIMORE, MD -- Senior forward Eric Toback (Ellicott, City, MD/Mt. Hebron) hit a 35-footer at the buzzer to cap a season-high 25-point effort and lift the Johns Hopkins men's basketball team to a thrilling, 70-69 victory over visiting Ursinus Saturday afternoon. In a game that featured 14 lead changes and six ties, Toback's game-winner was the difference for the Blue Jays, who won for the fifth time in the their last six games and improve to 8-5 overall, 5-2 in the Centennial Conference. The Bears, who only moments earlier appeared to have snatched the victory themselves, had a three-game winning streak snapped and fall to 7-7, 4-3.
Toback's three-pointer capped off a back-and-forth final nine minutes that saw the Blue Jay go from down four (52-48) to up four (63-59) with a 15-7 run. The run was jump-started by a three-pointer by sophomore T.J. Valerio (Blue Bell, PA/St. Joseph's Prep) with 8:31 remaining and included four points each from Toback and sophomore Danny Nawrocki (Syosset, NY/Chaminade). After a Nawrocki layup gave the Blue Jays the 63-59 lead with 2:19 remaining, Ursinus used a quick 8-2 run as Mike McGarvey (Lower Gwynedd, PA/Penn Charter) and Brian McEvily (Interlake, NJ/Red Bank) nailed back-to-back three-pointers to give the Bears a 67-65 lead with 41 seconds remaining.
A Toback jumper with 28 seconds remaining was answered by a driving layup by Will Furey (Lansdale, PA/LaSalle) with 2.3 seconds left to give the Bears what appeared would be a 69-67 victory. However, after a time, Johns Hopkins freshman Kevin Roach's (Derwood, MD/Colonel Zadok Magruder) pass over halfcourt was caught by Toback in traffic. He took two quick steps towards the middle of the court and let it fly. The buzzer sounded shortly before the ball swished through with the game-winning points.
A buzzer-beater didn't look like it would be necessary early in the game as the Blue Jays jumped out to a 15-6 lead that swelled to 24-13 with less than nine minutes remaining in the first half. Roach scored all six of his first-half points in the opening spree, which included five points by Toback and ended with a Bobby Sharafeddin (Silver Spring, MD/Barrie School) three-pointer at the 8:37 mark that gave the Blue Jays their largest lead of the game at 24-13.
Ursinus answered with a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 26-23 with just under six minutes remaining in the half. McEvily hit a pair of jumpers and a Matt Fabian (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) layup closed the run. The Blue Jays held the lead until the final seconds of the first half when McEvily hit a three-pointer with six seconds remaining to give the Bears their first lead of the game at 33-32. Freshman Terence Coppola (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) gave the Blue Jays a 34-33 lead at the half as he drove the length of the court and released a driving layup just before the buzzer for the final points of the half. As it turned out, that was not the most exciting buzzer-beater of the game.
A pair of Nawrocki layups bookended a 9-3 run to open the second half for the Blue Jays, but the Bears battled back to tie the game at 43-43 on a layup by McGarvey. The tie was the first of six in the final 15:26, which also saw an amazing 13 lead changes. The last-second decision is becoming common for the Blue Jays, whose last four games have been decided by a total of eight points.
Toback's 25 points were a game-high, while Nawrocki added 11 points and eight rebounds. Coppola and Roach, the two freshmen in the Blue Jays' starting lineup, were also effective in the win as Coppola had nine points and a career-high eight rebounds, while Roach had personal-bests of eight points and seven rebounds.
McEvily had 18 points and four rebounds to lead the way for Ursinus, while McGarvey added 12 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Furey chipped in with 10 points.
Johns Hopkins will next be in action on Wednesday, January 19 when the Blue Jays host McDaniel, while Ursinus hosts Gettysburg that night as well.
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