COLLEGEVILLE, PA –
Jeb Williams scored a career-high 22 points to lead Johns Hopkins to an 84-78 win at Ursinus Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action. The Blue Jays improve to 16-5 overall and 7-2 in the conference, while the Bears fall to 13-8 and 6-3.
Matthew Field and Jamie Murphy made back-to-back layups to pull the Bears within one with 1:13 to play. Williams answered with a layup but a pair of Field free throws cut the lead back to one with 28 ticks on the clock. The Blue Jays would go 6-1 from the charity stripe in the final 22 seconds to hold on for the win.
Ursinus led 4-3 early, but a
Wyatt Eglinton Manner triple sparked a quick 8-0 run to put Hopkins on top 11-4 at the 15:33-mark. The Bears came right back with a 12-2 run, fueled by six points from Luke Nieman, to grab a 16-13 lead just three-and-a-half minutes later. Hopkins got five unanswered from
Charlie Jackson and
Logan Feller to go up 18-16. The teams would trade buckets over the ensuing four minutes and JHU led 28-27 with 6:41 to go in the half.
Williams hit his fourth three-pointer of the half to kick-start a 12-3 run that spanned just over four minutes. Four Blue Jays combined for the 12 points as the defense held the Bears to just 1-of-7 from the floor. Jackson capped the run with four free throws to stake Hopkins to a 40-30 lead with 2:28 on the clock. Field and Mohamed Toure had the final say of the half with back-to-back layups to make it a 40-34 game at the break.
Hopkins opened the second with a 7-2 spurt to push its lead to 47-36 on a
Tanti Felli layup. Field answered with an old-fashioned three-point play to ignite a 13-2 run in just three-and-a-half minutes. Tomas Belaiter paced the Bears with six points, including a pair of free throws at 14:11 to tie the game at 49. The ensuing 5:36 was a back-and-forth affair and the game was tied at 65 with 8:35 to play.
Nick Klaiber and Williams then gave the Blue Jays a six-point lead with back-to-back triples just 30 seconds apart. But the Bears answered with three consecutive baskets to knot the score at 71 with 3:39 on the clock. Eglinton Manner made a three-point play, followed by a Williams' layup and Hopkins led 76-71 at the 2:11-mark.
Williams led four Blue Jays in double digits with a game-high 22 points, including a career-best six three-pointers. Jackson scored 19, with 16 of those points coming from the charity stripe. The 16 made free throws are one shy of the school single-game record and are the most by a Blue Jay since
Steve Adams had 15 on November 16, 2001. Eglinton Manner just missed a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. Klaiber added 14 points and four steals.
Toure led the Bears with 21 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Field added 16 points, while Jamie Murphy scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Belaiter also finished in double figures with 10 points.
Hopkins returns to action on Wednesday, February 11 versus McDaniel. Tip-off at Goldfarb Gym is slated for 8:00 pm.
