BALTIMORE, MD – In a game that featured nine ties and nine lead changes, it was the Johns Hopkins men's basketball team that hit 8-of-8 free throws in the final 55 seconds of overtime as the Blue Jays outlasted visiting Babson, 83-77, in Goldfarb Gymnasium Wednesday afternoon.  Johns Hopkins improves to 8-2 with the victory, while the Beavers slip to 6-4.
 
Tied at 71-71 entering the extra session after Babson's Thomas Ferdinando drained a 28-footer late in regulation to force overtime, the Blue Jays led just 75-74 as the clock dripped under one-minute remaining.  From there, Johns Hopkins salted away the victory at the line as Jeb Williams hit a pair and Charlie Jackson went 6-for-6 in the final 22 seconds to key the victory.
 
Babson held the lead for nearly 26 minutes in the game and sprinted out to an early 11-2 lead with a Ferdinando triple just four minutes into the game forcing the Blue Jays to call timeout.
 
Johns Hopkins answered the opening Babson spurt with a 16-7 run of its own to pull even at 18 midway through the opening half.  A Williams layup out of the timeout ignited the run, during which five different Blue Jays scored and the Johns Hopkins defense forced five Beaver turnovers.  Wyatt Eglinton Manner, who scored five points during the spree, capped the run with a floating jumper to force the first of the nine ties in the game.
 
The Beavers would twice string the lead out to seven before the break and they held a 27-20 advantage after Timmy Mulvey's jumper as the clock ticked under the six-minute mark, but the Blue Jays would close the half with their second 16-7 run of the game to grab a 36-34 halftime lead.  Johns Hopkins hit 8-of-11 down the stretch in the first half with Jackson (6) and Tanti Felli (4) combining for 10 of the 16 Blue Jay points.
 
The Beavers, as they had in the first half, got off to a quick start as a Ferdinando triple ignited a half-opening 16-7 Babson run that turned the two-point halftime deficit into a 50-43 lead with just under 15 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
A Williams three-pointer would jump-start a Blue Jay rally that saw them pull even at 52 and then lead 55-54 on a Logan Feller triple with 9:53 on the second-half clock.
 
The next seven minutes solved nothing as back-to-back Jackson layups would quickly turn a 64-60 Babson lead into a tie at 64 and the Blue Jays would bookend a Mulvey jumper with layups from Felli and Eglinton Manner in a 45-second span down the stretch to give Johns Hopkins a 71-68 lead, but Ferdinando's three-pointer from the wing tied it at 71 and Eglinton Manner's runner wouldn't go at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
 
The defenses would clamp down in the extra session as the teams combined for just three field goals, but after going 6-of-12 from the line in regulation, Johns Hopkins was perfect from the stripe down the stretch to seal the victory.
 
Jackson scored a career-high 26 points and added nine rebounds, including the 400^th of his career, while Williams (15 points, 8 rebounds), Eglinton Manner (15, 5) and Felli (10, 3) also scored in double figures.
 
Ferdinando paced the Beavers with 22 points and was 6-of-11 from three-point range, while Mulvey added 17 points.  Logan Murphy (11) and Robby Fiore (10) also scored in double figures for the Beavers.
 
Johns Hopkins held a 54-16 advantage in scoring in the paint, while the Beaver bench outscored the Blue Jay bench 26-9.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, January 3 when the Blue Jays welcome Stevenson to Goldfarb Gymnasium (12 pm).
  Read Full Article