BALTIMORE – The Haverford College men's basketball team held on for a 67-60 Centennial Conference victory over Johns Hopkins University Saturday at Goldfarb Gym. Haverford saw its lead shrink from seven to three in the final minute, but the Fords made 6-of-8 from the foul line to seal the victory.
Sam Permutt led Haverford (8-6, 5-3 CC) with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Ian Goldberg scored 12 points while Cam Baker and Brett Cohen added 10 apiece.
Hopkins' (4-11, 2-6) Mike Henrici led all scorers with 28 points, with 22 coming in the second half. Despite Henrici's effort, the Fords allowed just one other Blue Jay to reach double-digits as John Alberici scored 13. JHU received just 19 points from nine other players.
The teams were pretty even across the box score, but the Fords went to the foul line 20 times compared to just 10 for Hopkins. Haverford connected on 14 free throws. One other advantage the Fords held was in points off turnovers, scoring 13 to just two for the hosts.
Hopkins held a two-point lead early in the first half, but a 14-4 Haverford run put the visitors in front 23-15 with 10:44 on the clock. The Blue Jays trimmed the deficit to three nearly three minutes later until Permutt scored buckets on three consecutive possessions to extend the lead to nine, 31-22, with 3:05 left. A Daniel Corbett free throw followed by an Alberici layup in the final two minutes made it a six-point game heading into the intermission.
Haverford led by eight three times in the first five minutes of the second half, but the Blue Jays managed to stay in the game. Tim McCarty and Henrici scored baskets on back-to-back possessions to make the score 41-37. Louis Cipriano made a layup to put the Fords back up by six, but a Henrici three followed by an Aleksandra Nikolic jumper made it a one-point game, 43-42, with 12:16 showing.
Baskets by Permutt and Cohen on the Fords' next two possessions bumped the lead back to five. Henrici hit a three and made a layup sandwiched in-between a Cohen basket to get the Blue Jays within two near the eight-minute mark, but the Fords did not let Hopkins get any closer the rest of the way.
Henrici hit a trey with 52 seconds left and was fouled on the shot, making his free throw attempt to put the score at 61-58. Hopkins fouled on the inbounds pass and Cipriano made both his free throws. Goldberg made four foul shots in the final 20 seconds to provide Haverford with its seven-point victory.
Since the round robin format started in the Centennial Conference in the 2003-04 season this is the first time Haverford has beaten the Blue Jays twice in one year. With the victory Haverford sits in a three-way tie for third-place in the Centennial Conference.
The Fords remain on the road Wednesday, traveling to arch-rival Swarthmore College for an 8 p.m. tip-off at Tarble Pavilion.