Feb. 10, 2007

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The senior trio of Matt Griffin (Glen Mills, PA/Penncrest), Danny Nawrocki (Syosset, NY/Chaminade) and T.J. Valerio (Blue Bell, PA/St. Joseph's Prep) combined for 53 points to lead #17 Johns Hopkins to a 74-68 win over Ursinus. With the win the Blue Jays hit the 20-win mark for the sixth time in school history and the first since the 1998-99 season. Hopkins is now 20-3 overall and 14-2 in the Centennial Conference. Ursinus falls to 16-7 overall and 13-3 in the conference. Nawrocki grabbed 12 rebounds on the day to break the conference career rebounding record.

A tightly contested first half saw Hopkins take a two-point lead into the locker room at the break. The Blue Jays biggest lead of the half was just five points and the game was tied five times, including a 31-31 tie with 50 seconds remaining in the first. Matt Fabian hit a lay-up to knot the game at 31-31 and after a Blue Jays turnover with 32 seconds left the Bears got the ball back with a chance to tie. Fabian missed on a lay-up and freshman Patrick O'Connell (Baltimore, MD/Loyola Blakefield) drove the lane and was fouled on a pull-up jumper with .3 seconds on the clock. O'Connell stepped to the line and hit both free throws to give Hopkins a 33-31 halftime lead.

The second half was the same story as the first, with the score tied four times in the first 3:38 of the half. Ursinus went on a quick 6-3 run pushing the score to 50-45 when the Blue Jays called a timeout. As play resumed, Griffin hit a lay-up igniting a 12-2 Hopkins run. The Blue Jays retook the lead for good at 53-50 on a trey from Valerio with 12:22 to play. Valerio capped the run with a running jumper at 9:55. The Bears answered with a three from John Noonan, cutting it to two, but that's as close as they would get. Hopkins pushed its lead to as much as 10 points in the closing seconds of the game. The Blue Jays connected on 8-of-10 free throws in the final 47 seconds to seal the win.

Valerio led the Blue Jays with 20 points, including three treys. Griffin finished with 17 points and three rebounds. Nawrocki posted his 12th double-double of the season and the 33rd of his career with 16 points and 12 boards. Nick Shattuck paced the Bears with a game-high 23 points including a pull-up three as time expired. Fabian and Will Furey punched up 12 points apiece for Ursinus. The win was the 348th for head coach Bill Nelson on the Blue Jay bench, leaving him just two shy of the 350-win mark at Hopkins.

Hopkins returns to action on Wednesday, February 14 at Gettysburg. The Blue Jays and the Bullets will tip-off at 7:30 pm at Bream Gym in Gettysburg, PA.