Jan. 18, 2012

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BALTIMORE, MD - Visiting Washington College sank four straight free throws in the final 20 seconds to secure a 64-59 win over Johns Hopkins Wednesday night in Centennial Conference men's basketball action. The Blue Jays see their three-game win streak come to an end as they fall to 10-5 overall and 6-2 in the conference. The Shoremen meanwhile, move closer to the Jays in the standings, improving to 6-3 in the Centennial and 10-6 overall.

Following an Alex Pandrangi free throw that gave Hopkins a four-point lead less than a minute into the second half, Washington College put up eight straight points, capped by a Charlie McShane bucket in the paint, to put the visitors on top 38-34. The teams went back-and-forth before a three-point play by junior Adam Spengler and a layup from sophomore Aleksandar Nikolic tied the game at 41-41 with 11:22 to play.

The Shoremen responded with a 9-3 run, once again capped by a bucket from McShane, as Washington College took a 50-44 lead. The Blue Jays chipped away, getting the deficit back to one with 6:07 on the clock after a Mike Rhoads triple. Once again, Washington College answered, re-establishing a six-point lead less than three minutes later. But just like that, Hopkins came back with 6-1 spurt to make it a one-point game yet again on freshman George Bugarinovic's reverse layup with 1:06 to play. With 45 ticks on the clock, Kevin Cunningham went to the line for a one-and-one, but missed the front end. Bugarinovic corralled the rebound, but Rhoads then missed on a cross-court pass and the Shoremen took over with 22 seconds to play. Washington College sealed it from there, making its last four free throws from Sal Schittino and John Weston to earn the win.

The first half was tightly contested with as there were eight ties and eight lead changes, seven of those coming in the final 10 minutes of the half. After getting on the board first on a Bugarinovic bucket in the paint just 12 seconds in, Hopkins played catch-up for the next 10 minutes and retook the lead at 9:12 on a Daniel Corbett three-pointer. The lead see-sawed back-and-forth for about eight minutes. Hopkins tied the game and then took a two-point lead on four straight free throws from Spengler in a 27-second span. A Kevin Breslin free throw cut it to one with 38 seconds left in the half, but Nikolic drained a shot from the top of the paint to send Hopkins into the half with a 33-30 lead.

Spengler paced the Blue Jays with his first career double-double, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while going 9-of-9 from the free throw line. Bugarinovic also finished in double digits with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Breslin led three Shoremen in double figures with a game-high 13 points. Chris Olsen (12 points) and Schittino (10) also hit double digits for the game. Hopkins shot 44.4 percent from the game after attempting just 36 shots, but connected on 78.1 percent from the line (25-of-32). Washington College shot just 35.2 percent on the night and went 21-of-32 from the line (65.6 percent).

Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, January 21 as Dickinson visits Goldfarb Gym. Tip off for the Centennial Conference tilt is set for 3:00 pm.