The Hopkins men’s basketball team went into last weekend looking to continue their undefeated streak at home that began with the New Year. Although the team has played well on the road as well, they feel more comfortable in their home gym and love having the fans there to support them.
“We obviously enjoy playing at Goldfarb gym a ton,” junior George Bugarinovic said. “Just the familiarity and having our fans there supporting us is a nice bonus which definitely helps us during games.”
Despite all their success this year, the Jays knew they would be up against tough competition with Dickinson coming to Baltimore. Dickinson came into the weekend sitting atop the conference with a 13-2 conference record. Hopkins felt confident though after having playing well against Dickinson in their last encounter.
“We knew we can play with them because we almost beat them at their place earlier in the season. The coaches gave us a great scouting report and we knew exactly what was coming,” senior center Aleksander Nikolic said.
The game this weekend was similar to the last as the two teams exchanged leads eight times. Junior guard Jimmy Hammer got Hopkins out to a great start scoring seven of their first eight points including a three point shot that gave them an early 5-4 lead.
Hammer finished the game with a team high 24 points.
From there the Jays were able to hold off the Red Devils, until Tom McInery made a jumper with 10:39 left in the half. He was fouled on the play and made the and-one that put Dickinson in the lead. Dickinson held the lead until Hopkins sophomore Matthew Billups grabbed Bugarinovic’s rebound and made the layup. This was the last time the Blue Jays had the lead in the first half though as Dickinson went on a 11-6 run to take a 30-26 lead going into the half.
The second half proved to be a similar battle to the first with the lead changing another four times. Four minutes into the second half, Williams hit both his free throws to start an 8-1 run that put Hopkins up by two. Dickinson responded well though tying it back up on Gerry Wixted’s jumper.
After Dickinson regained the lead, sophomore Austin Vasiliadis tied the game back up at 43 with 10 minutes left to play. Hopkins kept the momentum going leading a dominant 9-2 run capped off with sophomore Niko Kotoulas sinking a three-pointer. Down by five Dickinson did not let Hopkins run away with the lead though, countering with a 10-2 run to take a 55-52 lead with 4:44 remaining on the clock.
The Jays took a timeout and seconds later, senior guard Daniel Corbett tied the game with a three-pointer. This would be the last time the two teams were even after Dickinson countered with a 13-8 run to win the game by a final score of 68-63. Hopkins nearly pulled even in the remaining seconds when Hammer was fouled on a three-point attempt. He made all three shots to put the Blue Jays within two with 36 seconds left to play, but Hopkins could not make another shot in the remaining few seconds.
The result was not what Hopkins had hoped for but proved they can compete against the best teams. When asked how the team felt about the game the players felt that they played well but have a few places to work on.
“I thought we stuck with our game plan for the most part. We hedged hard on most ball screens and Connor did well in containing Wixted in the middle. However, towards the end, we let Honig have some open shots and he was able to make them. I thought the main difference was rebounding. I believe they out rebounded us by 16. It's very tough to win games if you have that kind of performance on the glass, or lack thereof,” Nikolic said.
Hopkins was able to put up some impressive numbers having only six turnovers and forcing 14 from Dickinson. They also had eight steals and nine blocks, seven of which came from McIntyre, tying a single game record. In addition, the team was able to figure out their weaknesses and learn how to play better against Dickinson, which will help them with conference’s coming up.
“Despite us not getting the result we wanted on Saturday, we were able to learn some things that work and some things that don't work against them. Hopefully that will prepare us for similar moments in the conference playoffs, especially come crunch time. I think our team is hungry and anxious to prove that we can beat any team in our conference,” Bugarinovic said.
The Blue Jays will hit the road for their final game of the regular season against Washington College this weekend. The game is set to start on Saturday at 4 p.m., where the team will look to capture a final win before the Centennial Conference playoffs.
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