BALTIMORE - The Dickinson men's basketball saw their attempt to make a late postseason push take a hit on Saturday as the host Johns Hopkins University shot nearly 50% both the floor and beyond the arc en route to handing the Red and White their second conference loss of the week in the State of Maryland by a final of 79-55 inside Goldfarb Gymnasium.
Dickinson got off to a solid start as five points by
David Petrusev along with a jumper for
Nate Ogbu gave the visitors a 7-5 edge just over three minutes in. Unfortunately, that seemed to wake the Blue Jays up as triples for Brayden Fagbemi and Charlie Jackson coupled with buckets from Carson James and John Windley aided a 17-2 outburst to make it 22-9 with 8:35 left. A jumper by
Ryan Leskauskas off a nice feed from
Brandon Wiercinski sparked a 9-6 DC push with other contributions coming from
Matt Mahoney and Ogbu trimming the gap to 28-18 with 14:26 gone. Once against Hopkins had an answer scoring the next dozen points bookended by three-balls for both Fagbemi and Windley to extend their advantage to 40-18. Long-range efforts for Leskauskas and Petrusev as well as a free throw by
Isaiah Edmond allowed the Devils to end on a 7-0 run making the score 40-25 through 20 minutes.Â
Dickinson kept their run going to begin the second as they tallied the first seven points of the frame thanks to buckets for
Skyler Venezia, Edmond and Ogbu to close within 40-32. The Blue Jays went flying after that as five points by Brian Johansson kicked off a 12-2 charge for the hosts ending with two on the charity line for Jackson stretching the gap back over double-digits (52-34) still with over a dozen minutes left. Consecutive treys out of the hands of
Tyler Lawrence and an "old-fashioned" three-point play for
Aaron Bailey gave the Red and White some momentum still with more than ten minutes left at 54-43. Hopkins responded with a triple each from James and Windley, in addition to mid-range jumpers by Jeb Williams and Fagbemi to push it back out to 17 (67-50) at the 13:02 mark. A paint basket for Petrusev stopped the push for a second, but the home side picked up two free throws by Jackson to begin a 12-3 game-ending run capped by a three-ball from Isaiah Hanson with just 26-seconds left for the 79-55 result.
Red Devil Leaders
Points - Petrusev (13), Leskauskas and Ogbu (10)
Assists - Edmond (3),
Andrew Gostovich, Leskauskas, Venezia and Wiercinski (2)
Rebounds - Ogbu (5), Leskauskas (4), Gostovich and Wiercinski (3)
Blue Jay Leaders
Points - Windley (20), Fagbemi and Jackson (12), James and Williams (10)
Assists - James (8)
Rebounds - Jackson (7)
Postseason Outlook
The Devils currently find themselves at 5-9 in the conference one game behind 6-8 Muhlenberg for the sixth and final postseason berth. Dickinson and the Mules split the season series, so it could likely come down to a tiebreaker between the two teams which right now would go the way of MC due to their win earlier this season against Ursinus.
Next on the Court
Dickinson (8-13, 5-9 Centennial) is back in action on Tuesday night at 8pm when they welcome the Bullets of Gettysburg College to the Kline Center for a pivotal conference clash for both teams. The Red and White will attempt to avenge a 62-48 defeat suffered at the battlefield on December 6th.
