Andrew McGuire scored 11 points, including 3-of-4 shooting from the 3-point arc (Photo: Darl Zehr Photography)
BALTIMORE, M.D. — Tournament MVP Kyle Doran scored 16 points, including four free throws in the final 10 seconds to seal the victory, as host Johns Hopkins edged Cortland, 68-67, in the championship game of the 26th annual Blue Jay Invitational.
Cortland had its five-game winning streak snapped with the loss and is now 8-3. Johns Hopkins improved to 6-5.
Carrel Joseph (Port-au-Prince, Haiti/Deer Park (NY)) and Justin Cooper (Pine Plains/Stissing Mountain) were named to the all-tournament team for Cortland. Joseph scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Cooper scored 17 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Andrew McGuire (West Nyack/St. Joseph Regional (NJ)) added 11 points, all in the first half, and finished 3-of-4 from 3-point range.
Doran added five rebounds to his 16-point effort and was joined on the all-tournament team by Sam Gordon, who made 5-of-8 shots and finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Jays. Josh Wetzler chipped in with nine points in 10 minutes off the bench.
Cortland fell behind 16-4 to start the game, but fought back to take a 29-27 lead with 4:18 left in the half on two Michael Kelly (Monroe/Burke Catholic) free throws. Hopkins, however, went ahead 38-31 with 1:56 left in the period and took a 40-37 lead into the locker room at intermission.
The hosts never trailed in the second half, but never led by more than six points either. Gordon's layup with 13:28 left put Hopkins up 52-46, but Cortland eventually got back to within one at 54-53 on a Joseph 3-pointer with 9:37 remaining.
Cortland trailed 62-59 with 2:35 left after Joseph made the first of two free throws. Neither team scored for approximately two minutes until Cooper hit one of two foul shots to pull the Red Dragons within 62-60 with 36 seconds on the clock. Cortland pressed and got a steal in the backcourt, but missed a potential game-tying layup in transition with 20 seconds left.
Hopkins made all six of its foul shots from that point to secure the victory. Austin Vasiliadis hit two free throws with 17 seconds left, but Joseph's layup with 10 seconds left cut it back to two. Doran was quickly fouled, following a timeout, and hit two charity tosses with eight seconds left. Cooper quickly drove down court for an uncontested layup with less than four seconds remaining. Doran was fouled again with less than two seconds left and sank both free throws to push the lead back to four. Cooper hit a 3-pointer from beyond halfcourt at the buzzer to create the final margin.
The game was very close statistically. Each squad shot 41 percent from the field. Cortland hit 42 percent of its 3-pointers (10-of-24) to 39 percent for Hopkins (7-of-18), and the Red Dragons made 15-of-20 free throws (75 percent) to JHU's 13-of-15 (87 percent). Cortland, however, turned the ball over 13 times to Hopkins' eight giveaways.
Cortland's remaining 14 games are SUNYAC contests, starting with league games at home versus New Paltz Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Oneonta Saturday at 2 p.m.
