Hopkins Chills Off Swarthmore
BALTIMORE -- Garnet junior Danny Walker scored a team-high 19 points and senior post Raul Ordonez registered 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, but a chilly Goldfarb Gymnasium saw hometown Johns Hopkins produce a 60-48 win over Swarthmore Saturday afternoon in Centennial men's basketball action.
The Blue Jays improve to 10-4 overall (5-2 in the Conference) while the Garnet drop to 1-12 overall and 0-7 in the Centennial.
Blue Jay senior guard Collin Kamm scored a career-high 22 points to lead Johns Hopkins while teammate Leland O’Connor came off the bench for 13 points (also a career-high) and Mike Henrici added 11 points.
Walker (Westbury, N.Y. / Westbury) continued his strong play in the second semester, scoring in double figures for the fifth time in seven games. Ordonez (Miami, Fla. / Belen Jesuit) grabbed 10 boards in the first half alone, leading to his fourth double-double (a team-high) of the year.
Hopkins held a 13-point at half and the two teams came out firing in the second half. Ordonez dropped in jump hook at the onset for Swarthmore, but a flurry of JHU points opened up the game. A pair of Kamm free throws put the Blue Jays ahead 45-27 with 15:30 remaining and a change on defense stymied the Garnet offensive out-put.
Walker kissed a jumper of the window at 6:26 to get Swarthmore within 14 but the Blue Jays were able to limit Swarthmore to just a pair of points in the final 4:41 to pick up the win.
Many of the stat lines were even: the rebound battle was a dead-heat (both teams grabbed 35 boards), both teams made nine free throws and Swarthmore committed just two more turnovers (15-13). The lone edge was the Blue Jays converted Swat’s turnovers into 17 points while the Garnet were only able to generate nine points of JHU’s miscues.
The Blue Jays sank three consecutive jumpers to open up a 14-6 in the early going. Walker put the Swarthmore offense on his shoulders, getting the Garnet within one, 14-13, dropping in a driving lay-up and a deep three from the top of the key at 11:48. He sank his second triple of the half at 7:30 to keep his squad within three points, on the way to a team-leading 10 points in the first period.
Despite the chilly temperatures in Goldfarb Gymnasium, Johns Hopkins was hot from beyond the three-point arc early, nailing five-of-six attempts to open a 34-18 advantage with just under three minutes left in the first half. With their first make, the Blue Jays have registered a three-pointer in 329 consecutive games, dating back to Feb. 17, 1996. The longest active streak is held by Puget Sound (514 straight games with a triple).
The hometown Blue Jays held the 36-23 lead at intermission, getting 11 points from guard Kamm.
Swarthmore completes the recent four-game road slate with a 7:30 p.m. Conference game in Chestertown, Md. this Wednesday night. The Garnet will face Washington College in the latest edition of one of the Centennial’s hottest rivalries of late (six of the last seven match-ups have been decided by six points or less).
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