Men's basketball goes 1-1, playoffs in reach
The Hopkins men's basketball team finished off a fantastic weekend of play on Monday night with a solid win over Centennial Conference rival McDaniel.
The Jays also played Ursinus on Saturday but lost a very close game due to a late fourth quarter rally.
"The team played great in both of our games. Everyone stepped up on both the offensive and defensive sides. Unfortunately, on Saturday, Ursinus was able to hit free throws when it counted," senior Captain Matt Dapas said. "We stuck with them all game and definitely were not hanging our heads. On Monday, we went into our game with determination . . . and it showed. We were clicking on all cylinders. We played great offense, crashed the boards on defense, and most importantly hit free throws when we needed to. I am very proud of our guys".
This past Saturday, the Jays faced off against Ursinus in the Goldfarb gym. Ursinus jumped out to a 13-4 lead as five different Bears got in the scoring column.
Sophomore Sean O'Connor finally got things going for Hopkins, draining a three-pointer to fuel an 11-4 run as the Jays made it a 17-15 game midway through the first half. The Bears responded, pushing their lead back to seven before the Jays began chipping away again.
Trailing 24-17 with 6:22 to play in the half, freshman Mike Rhoads hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to four. Junior John Alberici and senior Pat O'Connell followed with a pair of buckets and it was a tie game.
After a trio of baskets by Alberici, and strong free throw shooting from Keith Page, the Jays went into the locker room with a 32-30 lead at the half.
The Jays got off to a hot start in the second half as Rhoads opened the scoring with his second bucket from downtown to extend Hopkins' lead to five. Ursinus responded with back-to-back triples to trim it to a one-point game. It went back and forth from there, as the Jays could not extend their lead to more than four. After trading bucket after bucket, the Jays led 61-60 with 3:51 on the clock.
The Jays also played Ursinus on Saturday but lost a very close game due to a late fourth quarter rally.
"The team played great in both of our games. Everyone stepped up on both the offensive and defensive sides. Unfortunately, on Saturday, Ursinus was able to hit free throws when it counted," senior Captain Matt Dapas said. "We stuck with them all game and definitely were not hanging our heads. On Monday, we went into our game with determination . . . and it showed. We were clicking on all cylinders. We played great offense, crashed the boards on defense, and most importantly hit free throws when we needed to. I am very proud of our guys".
This past Saturday, the Jays faced off against Ursinus in the Goldfarb gym. Ursinus jumped out to a 13-4 lead as five different Bears got in the scoring column.
Sophomore Sean O'Connor finally got things going for Hopkins, draining a three-pointer to fuel an 11-4 run as the Jays made it a 17-15 game midway through the first half. The Bears responded, pushing their lead back to seven before the Jays began chipping away again.
Trailing 24-17 with 6:22 to play in the half, freshman Mike Rhoads hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to four. Junior John Alberici and senior Pat O'Connell followed with a pair of buckets and it was a tie game.
After a trio of baskets by Alberici, and strong free throw shooting from Keith Page, the Jays went into the locker room with a 32-30 lead at the half.
The Jays got off to a hot start in the second half as Rhoads opened the scoring with his second bucket from downtown to extend Hopkins' lead to five. Ursinus responded with back-to-back triples to trim it to a one-point game. It went back and forth from there, as the Jays could not extend their lead to more than four. After trading bucket after bucket, the Jays led 61-60 with 3:51 on the clock.
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