BALTIMORE – The Haverford College men's basketball team made the trip down to Johns Hopkins on Tuesday after the postponement of Monday's contest due to unsafe travel conditions. Unfortunately, as the temperatures rose on the outside, so did the Blue Jays' shooting percentage in their friendly confines. The hosts finished with a 57.1% shooting percentage from the field during an 81-60 victory against the visiting Fords.
Haverford did get a trio of 10 point outings from three of the team's four freshmen in the starting lineup. Haverford's offensive night was highlighted by a career-high 19 points from Sam Stogdon. Joe Scibelli added 17 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Eleven of the freshman's 13 rebounds came off of the defense glass. Scibelli now needs just five defensive rebounds in the remaining two games to set the single season record for defensive rebounds that was set by Brett Cohen '14 with 148 in his senior season and matched by Gibby Graves '15 a season ago. Kahlil Garnes also added 10 points on the night for the Fords.
Johns Hopkins also had three players who reached double figure scoring totals on the evening. The Blue Jays were led by Ryan Curran's double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Sam Gordon and Gene Williams each finished with 13 points for the hosts.
The Fords' freshmen asserted their presence early in Tuesday's road contest. It was the trio of leading scorers that got Haverford all but two of its first half points. After just 12 minutes of playing time in the opening stanza, Stogdon had already broken his career high with 13 points at the break. Scibelli had 15 points to lead all scorers, while Garnes chipped in with four.
Haverford's hot shooting freshmen took what was a six-point advantage for the Blue Jays in the opening four minutes and flipped the script to a 15-14 lead for the Fords. Each of the aforementioned freshmen scored during a 9-4 run, but it was back-to-back jumpers from Scibelli that put the Fords up by a point with 13:31 to play in the first. However, an extended 24-10 run put the hosts up by 10 with 4:52 remaining the half. Scibelli's layup in the final minute of the opening half looked to bring his team back within five; however, a three-pointer from JHU's Jesse Flannery made the score 42-34 at the break.
Johns Hopkins scored the first points of the second half to push its lead back to 10 points. On four separate occasions in the second half, Haverford had the deficit back to single digits. The final occasion came when Henry Stevens got open in the paint and made the score 60-52 with 10 minutes left in regulation. However, that final second half rally was answered with three straight scoring possessions for Johns Hopkins. The Blue Jays' 21 point lead at the final buzzer proved to be the largest lead they would hold all night.
Men's basketball will now face a quick turnaround as the Fords play their final home contest on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Ursinus. The season closes on Saturday with a trip to rival Swarthmore.