Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. – Sophomore guard Corey Dorsey (Frederick, Md./St. Johns at Prospect Hall) continued to pile up the points with 19, but it was not enough to overcome a big Johns Hopkins advantage on the glass and at the foul line. The Blue Jays took an 80-73 victory in the Centennial Conference (CC) semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Goldfarb Gymnasium. Top-seeded Johns Hopkins was 33-for-45 (.733) from the line compared with 22-of-26 (.846) for the Bullets, and held a 43-29 edge in rebounding.

A big part of the both those stats was Johns Hopkins (22-4) senior forward Danny Nawrocki, who posted a 22-point, 13-rebound double-double. He was also 12-of-18 (.667) from the line, despite entering the contest making just 36.8 percent of his freebies. He was joined in double digit scoring by classmates Matt Griffin and T.J. Valerio with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Gettysburg (13-13), which dug itself out of a huge early-season hole to reach the playoffs, got 12 points each from sophomore guard Dan Capkin (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) and sophomore forward Joe Spierenburg (Chambersburg, Pa./St. Maria Goretti [Md.]) and a career-high 11 points from sophomore guard Chris Nevolo (Neshanic Station, N.J./Somerville). Spierenburg also had five blocked shots. On Jan. 6, the Bullets fell in overtime to Muhlenberg to fall to 0-5 in conference play, but they bounced back with 11 wins in their final 15 games.

The win was the 22nd of the season for Johns Hopkins, breaking the school single-season wins record. It was also the 350th as the Blue Jays' mentor for head coach Bill Nelson.

Griffin started the scoring for Johns Hopkins with a jumper less than a minute into the game. At the other end, Gettysburg senior center Brian Sateja (Morristown, N.J./Delbarton School) tied it up and started a 7-0 Bullets' run. Capkin hit a 3-pointer, and senior forward Julius Redd (Gaithersburg, Md./Magruder) added a bucket to make it 7-2 with 16:58 to go in the first half. That would be Gettysburg's largest lead of the game. Nawrocki snapped the run with the first of his 12 made free throws.

Johns Hopkins pulled even again at 8-8 on a jumper by junior forward Kevin Roach, and the teams would play neck-and-neck until just before the midway point of the half. Dorsey made a pair of free throws at the 11:10 mark, putting the Bullets on top 12-11. Roach and Dorsey then traded jumpers in an eight-second span, giving Gettysburg its last lead of the game at 14-13 with 10:41 to go before halftime.

Valerio drained a 3-pointer to put Johns Hopkins in front to stay, and his team scored nine straight points to go up by eight at 22-14 on a Nawrocki layup. Dorsey would end the run with two made free throws, but the Blue Jays continued to build the lead until it stood at 15 points. Sophomore guard Collin Kamm made two from the line to give the home team a 33-18 lead with 3:47 remaining.

Gettysburg closed out the half on a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to eight points, however. As part of that run, the Bullets went 7-for-8 from the line with four different players converting. The teams went to the locker rooms with Hopkins holding a 35-27 advantage.

The Blue Jays answered by scoring the first seven points of the second half. Griffin made two layups, and Kamm converted a traditional three-point play at the 17:59 mark to match Johns Hopkins' largest margin of the night at 42-27. Gettysburg was able to pull within nine points twice in the first 10 minutes of the half, but the Bullets' best chance to get back into the game came in the last 2:10.

After Nawrocki made two from the line, Capkin made a layup to pull the Bullets within seven points at 66-59. Griffin made a layup at the other end, followed by a Spierenburg triple that cut the deficit to six points, but that would be as close as Gettysburg would get. Johns Hopkins made 4-of-6 free throws over the next 26 seconds to make sure the Bullets could not build momentum for a comeback, and they sealed the victory by making 8-of-10 foul shots in the final 45 seconds. Dorsey, Capkin and Redd all made 3-pointers in the same span, but it was too little, too late.

Johns Hopkins advances to the CC championship game to be played Sunday at 3 p.m. The Blue Jays will take on Haverford, which won a 70-69 overtime thriller over two-time defending CC champion Ursinus in Saturday's second semifinal.

For the Bullets, Redd and Sateja, along with classmate Mike Beck (Clearwater, Fla./Clearwater) wrap up their careers, having made it to the conference semifinals all four years.