BALTIMORE, MD – Fifteen-ranked Swarthmore got five straight points from Vinny DeAngelo in the final 66 seconds to grab a 76-73 win over seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference Championship game.
DeAngelo drained a pull-up three with 1:06 left to put the Garnet up 74-71. Senior
Carson James answered with a driving layup on other end to pull the Blue Jays back within one with 51.5 on the clock. After getting a stop on defense, Hopkins go the ball with 21 ticks but couldn't not get the go-head bucket and Swarthmore would seal the title with two DeAngelo free throws.
Hopkins jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, with
John Windley and
Brian Johansson combining for all eight points. Back-to-back buckets from George Visconti and George Corzine cut the Blue Jays' lead in half at 15:54. Junior
Will Sykes responded with a pair of free throws to spark 10-2 run. Windley and senior
Conor Gibson capped the run with back-to-back triples and just like that Hopkins led 18-6 with 10:55 to go in the half.
The teams traded scores over four straight possessions and JHU had 22-11 lead just 78 seconds later. Michael Caprise hit a layup followed by four consecutive Garnet free throws and the lead was down to five at 7:30. A pair of
Carson James free throws were answered by an Eddie Paquette jumper and it was 24-19 Blue Jays.
Senior
Sidney Thybulle threw down a dunk on the ensuing possession to spark a 14-3 run that saw JHU push its lead to 16 at the 2:02-mark. Four Blue Jays scored during the run, which was powered by a shot-clock beating hook shot from Thybulle and a nothing-but-net three from senior
Lincoln Yeutter. DeAngelo then hit a floater in the paint, followed by an Aidan Godfrey corner three to trim the lead to 11. Thybulle responded with a bucket off the glass to send Hopkins into the half with a 40-27 lead.
Swarthmore came out firing to start the second half and used a 13-6 spurt to trim the deficit to six just 4:33 in. Nixon drained a three on the other end to spark an 11-4 run as Hopkins pushed its lead back to 13. Gibson capped the run with a triple to stake the Blue Jays to a 57-44 lead at 12:44. Colin Shaw halted the run with a three of his own, that ignited a 13-3 Garnet run that saw the lead sliced to just one with 7:06 to play.
A Nixon turnaround jumper, followed by a Windley three pushed Hopkins ahead 65-59. The lead was short-lived however. The Garnet scored eight straight points to take their first lead of the game on a Caprise bucket at 4:30. The Blue Jays answered with another Nixon three-pointer and a Windley bucket to put JHU up 70-67 less than two minutes later. Four straight points by Caprise swung the lead back to the Garnet, 71-70, but a Sykes free throw tied the game at 71 with 1:17 on the clock.
Windley led the Blue Jays with 20 points and added five rebounds while Nixon punched up 16 points. James handed out five assists to go with nine points. DeAngelo scored a game-high 26 points to earn tournament MVP honors for the Garnet. Visconti added 11 points and a game-high seven rebounds. Caprise finished with 14 points and Corzine added 13 points.
Hopkins will await the NCAA Tournament bracket announcement to see if its season continues. The bracket will be announced on Monday, February 27 at 1:00 pm on NCAA.com.
