Getting pumped up to play against a team that has not lost a conference game all season is the easy part. Actually giving the team a run for its money is a little bit harder.
Hopkins, though, was able to challenge the first place Ursinus Bears in the first half and even go into halftime with the game tied and senior guard Doug Polster on his way to a career night.
In the second half, however, Ursinus showed why it is the best team in the Centennial Conference, eventually pulling away to an 82-66 victory and dropping Hopkins to 11-8 overall and into a three-way tie for third in the conference at 7-5. With the win, Ursinus moved to 17-2 overall and 12-0 in Centennial Conference action, preserving a two-game lead over the second-place Gettysburg Bullets.
Senior guard Nick Shattuck, the leading scorer in the conference, set the pace early for the Bears, scoring the game's first basket on his way to 10 first-half points and 27 total points for the afternoon. Polster would not be shown up by his conference rival, however, and added 14 first-half points of his own.
With Hopkins leading 29-26 and the clock winding down on the first half, it seemed the Blue Jays would actually go into the locker room with all the momentum. Ursinus's Remy Cousart killed any momentum Hopkins may have had, though, as he hit a big three-pointer with six seconds to play to send the teams to a 29-29 tie at the break.
"It's not hard to get the team pumped up for these kind of games," coach Bill Nelson said. "They come out and go at it hard every time."
Midway through the second half Ursinus finally became too much for Hopkins and once again it was a three-pointer for Ursinus that sent the Bears on their way. John Noonan's three gave Ursinus a 48-43 lead with 11:47 to play and the Bears' lead never dropped below five again.
"They do a good job defensively," Nelson said. "And we kind of just ran out of gas with ten minutes to play."
Ursinus also shot an incredible 61 percent from the field in the second half, which is a hard number for any team to try to keep pace with. Shattuck, Ursinus's leading scorer, played a major role in the team's great shooting half as he went 8-for-9 over the course of the final 20 minutes and dominated offensively from inside the three-point arc.
Coach Nelson does not feel it was Shattuck who beat them, though.
"The thing that hurt us most is that we didn't rebound well," Nelson said. "The first time we played them, we out-rebounded them by quite a bit."
In the first game Hopkins led the rebound category 50-36, but in this game Hopkins lost the rebound battle 41-26. Losing the rebound battle also allowed Ursinus to pour in 11 second-chance points compared to Hopkins's three.
Ursinus also finished the game with four players in double figures, while Hopkins only had one. Polster, the lone man with more than nine points, finished the game with a career-high of 29.
"Doug never quits," Nelson said. "He's one of the best three-point and foul shooters in the league, plus he really battles game in and game out."
With his scoring outburst, Polster raised his season average to 15.5 points per game and, as the season enters the home stretch, the Blue Jays are going to need more nights like this one out of their captain.
With both Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson at 6-6 and nipping at the heels of the three 7-5 teams, the last three weeks of the season carry much more weight for this year's Jays than they have in past seasons.
Not only will Polster need to keep his game at a high level, but the young post players will also need to step up if Hopkins wants to separate itself from the pack of five teams vying for the final three playoff spots.
"When our post players have a good game, we win," Nelson said. "When they're off, we're in trouble, but they're young and getting better and working very hard."
Nelson is quick to point out that after what at times has been a tumultuous season, Hopkins still controls its own destiny in conference play.
"There's a lot of parody in the league and we've proven we can play with anybody," Nelson said. "We need to go out and just continue to improve. It's so even this season that we can't have one of those 'we-didn't-come-to-play-tonight' kind of games."
The Blue Jays face Haverford College when they travel to Pennsylvania on Saturday.
