M. Basketball enters playoff picture with win streak

Hopkins men's basketball
team is heating up the
hardwood on the Homewood
Campus at just the
right time. They are poised
to make a run into the
postseason. After hitting a mid-season swoon that saw
them drop five consecutive
conference games, the Jays
rallied for three consecutive
wins against Centennial
Conference rivals.
The Jays' most recent
road win came this past
Saturday when the Blue
Jays took a trip up north
to battle the Garnet of
Swarthmore College. The
first half was a back-andforth
battle, as each team
sustained runs to take the
lead in the early going.
It looked as if the Garnet
would take the momentum
into the locker room as they
led by a score of 23-19 with
2:29 left in the opening half.
However, in came junior
guard Adam Spengler, who
had been held scoreless the
previous 17 minutes, to hit
three consecutive threepoint
shots to help the Jays
storm into the locker room
on a 9-0 run. "In the first half we really
struggled offensively,"
Spengler said, "Thankfully
I was able to get some
spacing and knock down a
few threes. I was confident
when I got an open look I
would be able to capitalize."
The Blue Jays expanded
their lead in the second
half only to see it shrink
to a two point game midway
through the second
half. What happened
next was the product of
true teamwork as four
Jays contributed to a 22-0
run to expand the lead to
60-36 and all but put the
game out of reach.
"The run in the second
half against [Swarthmore]
was a lot due to the fact
that we crashed the boards
defensively," Spengler, the
six-foot-one, 180-pound junior
from Colts Neck, N.J.
recounted. "This allowed
us to put ourselves in great
position on offense where
we ran some of our sets the
best I've seen all year."
Spengler finished the
game with 12 points while
freshman phenom George
Bugarinovic led all Blue
Jay scorers with 13 points,
five rebounds and two
steals. Sophomore center
Aleksandar Nikolic also
poured in double digits
as he added 11 points on
5-of-7 shooting. The Blue
Jays benefited from some
sharp shooting as they fin-ished the game shooting
48 percent from the field
while shooting at
a remarkable 59.1
percent clip over
the course of the
second half.
The Blue Jay
basketball team
has benefitted
this season from
buying into Head
coach Bill Nelson's
game plan
and performing
as a team every
time out. The Jays,
at 13-9 and 9-6 in
the Centennial,
are tied for fourth
place in the conference with
four games remaining on
the schedule. Remarkably,
they have done so without
having a single scorer averaging
more than 10 points
per game.
Eight different Blue Jays
have started a game this
season, while ten players
have seen action in every
contest of the 2011-2012 campaign,
exemplifying a depth
not seen on any team in the
Centennial Conference.
Recent success this season
by both the men's and
women's basketball teams
has seen an increase in
school spirit and support
at games in the Goldfarb
Gymnasium. The Blue Jays
recent home games have
seen the stands packed
with passionate supporters
wearing colorful garb
who cheer on their classmates
with a fervor that
concurrently strikes fear
in the heart of opposing
teams and adds the proverbial
'Sixth Man' to the
Blue Jays squad.
"The support at home
games is the best I've seen
in my three year career at
Hopkins so far," Spengler
happily noted. "I truly believe
they play a part in
our success at home, making
it hard on the opponents.
They're crazy and I
love it."
On Wednesday night,
the Blue Jays got an opportunity
to play in front of
these fans, challenging the
Green Terror of McDaniel
in another Centennial Conference
rivarly. McDaniel
entered the game with a
lowly 4-10 in-conference
record, a perfect chance
for Hopkins to extend their
win streak.
Once again, it was Hop-kins' youth, and more specificaly
their young size,
that stepped
up for the
black and
blue. Bugarinovic
paced
the Jays with
a double-double,
coupling
18 points and
10 boards,
while sophomore
forward
Connor Mc-
Intyre added
six rebounds
and four
blocks.
The Jays
will look for that support
as they continue their
home-stand this weekend
against Conference rival
Ursinus College at 3 PM
following the women's basketball
game at 1 PM. The
Blue Jays move forward
into the penultimate week
of the season with high
hopes and focused minds
as they make a push towards
the Centennial Conference
playoffs.
Spengler summed it up
best when he said, "We are
in a situation where we are
able to control our own
destiny, and that's all you
can ask for."
So come out and show
some school spirit and join
in the support and cheer
on the Blue Jay men's basketball
team as they make
a last push toward the
postseason.