HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team had No. 15 Johns Hopkins on the ropes all afternoon, but a three-pointer from JHU's Ethan Bartlett with nine seconds to go allowed the Blue Jays to escape Gooding Arena with an 80-79 Centennial Conference victory. Haverford (12-5, 7-3 CC) had a chance in the remaining moments but a floater in the lane was just off the mark as Johns Hopkins (15-2, 9-1 CC) held on for the one-point Centennial Conference victory.
After watching the lead change hands a staggering 10 times during a back-and-forth opening half, Haverford led for nearly the entire second period in front of a pumped up Gooding Arena crowd. In an extremely well-played game by both sides, both sides shot the ball better than 50% from the field. After shooting over 60% from the field during the opening half, Haverford carried a 42-41 lead into the locker room.
A pair of field goals from both sides left the scored tied at 44-all just under a minute into the second half. A three-pointer from Jonathan Lang swung the momentum back in Haverford's favor with 18:22 to go on the game clock as the Fords took a 47-44 advantage. Contrary to how the first half played out, that basket gave the Fords a lead they would not relinquish until the excruciating final basket from the visitors.
Johns Hopkins did manage to tie the contest at 50-all just minutes later, but a layup from Ryan Trotter kept the Fords ahead. Up four points at 58-54 with 10:27 to play in regulation, the Fords were the first team to be able to create some distance on the scoreboard as points in the paint from Jesse Turkson, Joe Wujciak, and Nate Torres gave the Fords a 64-57 edge with 7:47 to play. Holding the Blue Jays to just one basket from the field during a nearly six-minute stretch, an old-fashioned three-point play from Jack Cork stretched Haverford's advantage to double digits, 67-57, with 5:59 left in regulation.
Haverford was still holding a 77-68 lead with 2:10 remaining in the game after Joe Wujciak converted a pair of free throws. Johns Hopkins was seemingly knocking down threes all afternoon and unfortunately for the Fords that trend continued during the final two minutes of game action. The Blue Jays finished the day 14-of-30 from beyond the arc (46.7%). Putting an exclamation mark on that effort were treys during three of the team's final four possessions. In the only possession during which JHU did not connect on a three-pointer, it converted an and-one opportunity.
Taking possession of the ball with 30 seconds to play, Johns Hopkins initially missed a three-pointer with 14 seconds on the game clock, but a rebound under the basket from Carson James kept the possession alive before Ethan Bartlett made the most of that opportunity.
The Fords finished the game with four players recording double-figure scoring outputs. Josh Love seemingly came up with big shot after big shot during the back-and-forth opening 20 minutes as he scored 12 of his game-high 15 points in the first half. Turkson was right behind him with 14 points while Cork and Wujciak added 13 and 10 points, respectively. Haverford finished the game with a better shooting percentage from the field and scored four more points at the line in 11 tries compared to 10 for the visitors. However, that strong offensive day was not enough to overcome 14 three-pointers from the Blue Jays. Haverford made seven triples in its own right, with Love knocking down three of those efforts during his career day.
Men's basketball will close out the month of January this coming Wednesday, January 29 as the Fords head to Ursinus in a scheduled doubleheader with the women's team. Haverford will face off with Ursinus at 6 p.m. before the women's game is slated for an 8 p.m. contest. Haverford will be seeing every Centennial Conference team for the second time down the stretch. The Fords started CC played with a 94-88 overtime victory against the Bears during the month of November.