men’s basketball has right elements
to pull past johns hopkins

There may have been snow falling from the sky, but inside Memorial Hall it was thunder and lightning that fueled the Muhlenberg men’s

With frontcourt starters Liddic and Hargrove both on the bench with two fouls, freshman Brandon Bovino hit this layup with 2:10 left in the first half.

basketball team against Johns Hopkins.

That's “thunder” as in sophomore guard Matt O’Hara, and “lightning” junior Justin Greenstone.

And it was six assists from lightning that helped jolt the Mule offense, while thunder delivered a pair of 3-pointers that allowed Muhlenberg to build a large enough lead that it was able to withstand a late Blue Jay charge for a 54-48 win.

“Every win is a big win for us right now,” O’Hara said. “We’re in the middle of the playoff race and we need every win we can get. We need to keep this streak going.”

The victory moved Muhlenberg (11-8, 7-5) into a tie for fourth place

Led by Greenstone’s 6 assists, the Mules assisted on 18 of their 20 baskets.

with Dickinson, but it did not come easy against the last-place Blue Jays (4-15, 2-10).

The Mules struggled offensively in the first half, shooting 32 percent from the field as Johns Hopkins grabbed the lead less than five minutes before halftime.

But with the clock winding down, senior David Gwyn found classmate Evan Tozer alone on the right wing. Tozer pulled up and fired off a 3-pointer that swished the net with 4.1 ticks left on the clock.

That shot gave the Mules the lead entering the locker room, and more importantly, it gave them a surge of momentum.

“That’s a senior stepping up,” O’Hara said. “We weren’t playing well in the first half, but when he hit that shot we went into halftime knowing we hadn’t played our best but we were still winning. That was a huge confidence boost for us.”

Muhlenberg rode that wave out of the locker room and started to play more cohesively on offense. The Mules dished out 11 assists and shot 52 percent from the field in the second half. They also limited Hopkins (4-15, 2-10) to just nine points in the first 10 minutes after the break and started to pull away.

Muhlenberg grabbed its first double-digit lead when freshman Kevin Hargrove pulled down a rebound and got the ball to O’Hara. After only a few dribbles, O’Hara fired a quick pass to Greenstone, who was waiting in the frontcourt. Greenstone drove into the middle of the lane, stopped, turned and delivered a pass to a trailing O’Hara. “Thunder” sunk a three from

Women Fall on Second-Half Run With less than 10 minutes to play, things were looking good for the Muhlenberg women’s basketball team in its showdown with Johns Hopkins for the top spot in the Centennial Conference. The Mules had fended off a Hopkins run that cut a nine-point halftime lead to one and were up by nine again, at 49-40. But then the Blue Jays went on a 17-0 run, and Muhlenberg could never recover. Hopkins (16-3, 13-2) went on win, 67-57, to put itself in prime position to host the CC playoffs. With five games left on their schedule, the Blue Jays have a two-game lead and a sweep on the second-place Mules (13-5, 9-4). Gettysburg, which lost to Swarthmore, and Franklin & Marshall are three games back. Senior Sheila Cook scored 10 points for the Mules, who shot just 29.0 percent from the field. Freshman Leeann Lanza had 12 rebounds. Click here for box score. Click here for complete stats.

the right wing to put Muhlenberg up, 45-34.

The Mules would stretch their advantage to 14 before Hopkins began its comeback. The Blue Jays got to within four with less than a minute to play when junior Spencer Liddic got the ball on the left block. With multiple defenders

Liddic (34) sees through the Hopkins double team to find Hargrove cutting to the basket (left), and the freshman makes the layup (right) to help ice the win.

closing in on him, Liddic delivered a perfect pass to Hargrove, who was coming down the opposite side of the lane, for an easy layup to seal the game with 37.1 seconds to play.

Liddic finished with a game-high 20 points, including 14 after the break. He also pulled down 12 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season.

Hargrove and Tozer each contributed eight points, while O’Hara and Greenstone added six and five, respectively.

And according to Greenstone, it was another opportunity for him and O’Hara to show that although they may not be the biggest guys on the court, 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-11, respectively, they can still add a burst of energy to help charge the team.

“We’ve been playing together for two years now, and I love playing with him in the backcourt,” Greenstone said of O’Hara. “We joke all the time, and I always say that I’m the lightning because I’m quicker and he’s the thunder because he’s a little bigger guy.”
Click here for box score.
Click here for complete stats.