When it comes to facing adversity, some teams are better than others. This past week, the Hopkins men’s basketball team demonstrated that not only are they one of those teams that can handle the pressure, but that they thrive in it.
The week started off with Wednesday’s game against the Diplomats of Franklin & Marshall, and the game was all Dips the whole way. In the first half, the the first place team in the Centennial Conference built a formidable lead by going on a dominant 17-4 run against Hopkins. This led to a ten point lead early and it was all downhill from there for the Jays. The lead was cut to nine by the away team, but the deficit was short-lived. Going into halftime, Franklin & Marshall had the Jays on the ropes with a 38-23 lead. The early portion of the second half would prove worse for the Jays, as the Dips came out of the gate firing, pushing the lead to 22 points.
However, the Jays refused to back down, pushing back on F&M and cutting the deficit to 16. The push was led by senior Alex Spengler and freshman Matt Chiusano. Although F&M brought the lead back to 21, again Hopkins was able to trim the deficit to 15 thanks to a George Bugarinovic field goal and two straight three pointers from Jimmy Hammer. This was the closest the Jays would come as the Diplomats closed out the game with a 19 point victory.
Bugarinovic led the Jays in scoring on the day with an impressive 12 points, while Spengler chipped in 10 points. The game marked the fifth consecutive game in double-figures for Spengler.
After the loss to F&M, it was clear that the Jays needed to quickly regroup and prepare for Saturday’s game against a tough Washington College squad, who entered the hostile environment of Goldfarb Gym ready to play. Saturday was a special day for the Jays, as it was Senior Day. The seniors honored on Saturday were Spengler, Alex Pandrangi, John Mysliwiec and Mike Rhoades.
Hopkins would not disappoint as they dominated the first half, stretching the lead out to 15 points late in the half. At the half, the Jays led the Shoremen by 10 at 34-24.
The lead was quickly cut short though, with Washington cutting the deficit to one two minutes into the half. The Jays went on a 12-5 run of their own though, and their lead stood at 46-38. The Shoremen, still not backing down, tied the game at 46 with less than 12 minutes to play in the game. After building an anything but comfortable six point lead, thanks to triples by Dan Corbett and Rhoades, the Shoremen came storming back with a 7-0 run, giving them their first lead of the day. With a little over three minutes to play, Hopkins regained the lead, 62-61. Later, with Hopkins down by a deuce, Jimmy Hammer decided to send the seniors off in style in thrilling fashion. Hammer nailed the game-winning three pointer, his only triple of the day, to secure the victory for Hopkins, 68-67. Bugarinovic led the way for the Jays in the scorebook, putting up 21 points and bringing down nine rebounds. In their final game in front of the Goldfarb Gang, Rhoades and Spengler each reached double-digits with 16 and 11 respectively. Hammer finished the contest with 11 points, none bigger than the three at the end.
After earning a bye in the Centennial Conference tournament, Hopkins will face Dickinson as the number three seed this coming Friday. Assistant Coach Matt Righter expressed a lot of enthusiasm regarding the win against the Shoremen and his excitement for the upcoming Centennial Conference Tournament.
“Our last win against Washington College was a big one. Not only does the win give us the three seed but also shows that our guys can be clutch in big situations. We have not won a game like that all year so I thought the timing was perfect."
“Dickinson is a great team, but so are we," Righter added. "I expect our guys to be rested, focused and determined to play their best basketball of the season. We accomplished one of our goals for the season: to make the playoffs. Now we move on to our second goal: winning the conference tournament. To do this, we must execute better and play harder than every other team remaining. After the games this weekend, if we can say we played harder and executed better, then I guarantee our next game in 2013 would be in the NCAA tournament.”
