Nov. 16, 2012

Box Score

CLEVELAND, OH - The Johns Hopkins men's basketball team dropped its season-opener, 61-44, to Wittenberg, a 2012 NCAA quarterfinalist, in the opening game of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Memorial Tournament. The Blue Jays open their season with a loss for just the second time in the last 11 seasons, while the Tigers start the season off at 1-0 and advance to Saturday's championship game versus host Case Western.

It was a close game early as the teams buckets over the opening three minutes before a triple from sophomore Jimmy Hammer and a jumper from junior Aleksandar Nikolic gave Hopkins a five-point lead with just over four minutes gone. Wittenberg answered with five quick points to tie the game for the fourth time. Nikolic put the Blue Jays back on top at 14:20 with another bucket, but that was followed by a dry spell for both teams. John Albertson ended the drought for the Tigers at 11:31 with a bucket in the paint to tie the game at 12 apiece.

The drought continued for another six minutes but fortunately for the Blue Jays the Tigers were only able to stake themselves to a five-point lead during that stretch. Sophomore George Bugarinovic finally got Hopkins back on the board with a layup at 5:42 to make it a 17-14 game. But Wittenberg responded with a 10-4 run that spanned the final five minutes of the half and the Tigers took a 27-18 lead at the break.

Coming out of the half, Bugarinovic and senior Alex Pandrangi sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Scott Masin layup and the deficit was seven. The Tigers came right back with an 11-2 burst the pushed their lead to 16 with 13:36 to play in the half. Four different players scored for Wittenberg during the run, with Sam Collins' scoring the first four points. Hopkins could get no closer than 11 over the remainder of the half as the Tigers shot 60.0 percent from the field in the second half to take the 61-44 win.

Freshman Matt Chiusano led Hopkins with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting while also grabbing four rebounds. He is the first freshman to lead the team in scoring in the season-opener since Danny Nawrocki in a 59-55 win over St. Mary's on November 21, 2003. Bugarinovic chipped in eight points and had two of Hopkins' six blocks. Zach Leahy led a trio of Tigers' in double-digits with a game-high 13 points while also grabbing five rebounds. Collins added 12 points, while Masin had 11 points and six boards.

Hopkins will face Bluffton in the consolation game of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Memorial Tournament on Saturday, November 17 at 5:00 pm. Live stats and video are available here.