BALTIMORE, Md. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team gave No. 13 ranked Johns Hopkins everything it could handle before being defeated 81-75 in the semifinal round of the Centennial Conference Tournament on Friday night.
The Bears will wrap up the 2021-22 season with a 13-13 overall record as they reached the Centennial Semifinal round for the fourth time in five seasons. Meanwhile, the top-seeded Blue Jays improved to 21-3 overall and will look to defend their Centennial Conference title on Saturday night against No. 18 Swarthmore.
Senior Ryan Hughes led the Bears with 18 points behind going 10-of-12 from the free throw line and grabbed four rebounds along with three steals. Sophomore Trevor Wall posted 16 points, went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line, and grabbed two rebounds. Freshman Sean Neylon recorded the first double-double of his career with 15 points and a career-high 10 rebounds while classmate Jaiden Jakubowski added 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.
After the teams traded baskets in the first three minutes, the Blue Jays rattled off the first run of the game with five-straight points to take a 9-4 lead at the 14:43-mark. The Bears struck back with a 9-3 run to take their first lead of the contest at 13-12 with 10:46 remaining in the first half as they held the Blue Jays without a point for three minutes. Johns Hopkins countered with seven-straight points to go up 19-13 at the 8:48-mark before extending their lead to 25-18 just over two minutes later. Ursinus cut the deficit down to 26-22 at the 4:29-mark but were unable to get any closer in the first half. The Blue Jays took their largest lead of the half at 38-29 with 16 seconds left in the first half following a three-pointer, but Jakubowski gave the Bears some life headed into halftime by making a three-pointer of his own 12 seconds later to make it a 38-32 contest.
The Blue Jays started the second half strong as they opened on a 10-2 run in the first 3:08 to take their largest lead of the game at 48-34. Ursinus snapped a 4:48 scoreless stretch with a jumper from sophomore Beau Everett at the 15:29-mark to start a 7-2 burst and cut the Blue Jays lead down to 50-41 with 14:23 left in the second half. Johns Hopkins extended its lead back out to 13 points at 56-43 before Ursinus rallied with a 14-4 run and trimmed the deficit down to 60-57 with 7:22 remaining in regulation. However, the Blue Jays ended the Bears run with a 13-4 run of their own to go up 73-61 at the 4:17-mark of the second half. Johns Hopkins extended its lead to 76-63 before the Bears made one last charge at the Blue Jays with nine-straight points to cut the lead down to 76-72 with just over 1:47 remaining in regulation. Neylon capped the run with a three-point play after getting fouled on a jump shot. Ursinus got a stop on its next defensive possession but missed a pair of shot attempts on the offensive end to prevent further pressure on the Blue Jays. The Bears caught a break after Johns Hopkins missed a pair of free throws on their next possession and made it a 78-74 game with 24 seconds left following a layup from Hughes. Unfortunately for the Bears, they did not make another field goal for the rest of the contest and the Blue Jays closed the game out by making three of its last four free throws.
Ursinus shot 43.1 percent (25-of-58) from the field but went just 4-of-21 (19%) from three-point range. The Bears bounced back in a big way at the charity stripe as they went 21-of-23 (91.3%) on free throws and held a 13-5 edge in points off turnovers. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays shot 44.3 percent (27-of-61) from the field and an efficient 13-of-27 (48.1%) from three-point range. Johns Hopkins went 14-of-22 (63.6%) from the free throw line and held a 39-32 edge in rebounds. Once again, second chance points played a big role for the Blue Jays as they held a 20-7 edge in that category. Johns Hopkins outscored the Bears a combined 52-11 in second chance points between the three meetings this season.
The Blue Jays had four starters in double-figures, led by Conner Delaney with a game-high 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Tom Quarry added 19 points behind making five three-pointers and grabbed three rebounds while Sidney Thybulle recorded a double-double behind 11 points plus 12 rebounds. Carson James recorded 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc along with four rebounds plus four assists.