MBB Drops NCAA Opener to #11 Johns Hopkins

BALTIMORE, Md. - The Mitchell College men's basketball team saw its season come to an end on Friday night, falling 89-71 to eleventh-ranked Johns Hopkins University in the opening round of the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship at Goldfarb Gymnasium.

Mikey Buscetto (Waterford, Conn.) led the Mariners with a game-high 24 points to go along with five assists, four rebounds, and two steals. Alfonzo Stokes (Bloomfield, Conn.) was right behind his backcourt mate, finishing with 23 points and seven rebounds. No other Mitchell player reached double-figures, as Wilton Causey (Worcester Mass.) chipped in six points off the bench, while Ahmani Browne (St. John's, Antigua), Jalen Benson (New London, Conn.), Dontae Pollard (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.), and Jacob Narvaez (Miramar, Fla.) finished with four points each.

John Windley netted a team-best 23 points for the Blue Jays and Sidney Thybulle posted a 10 point, 14 rebound double-double. Brian Johansson poured in 17 points for Johns Hopkins and Jayden Nixon rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14 points and seven boards.

The Mariners matched the Blue Jays punch for punch in the opening half, answering back every time the home squad delivered a blow. Playing primarily from slightly behind, Mitchell stormed back five times to tie the score, as Johns Hopkins could not shake the tenacious Mariners defense or contain the offensive output from Stokes, who scored 16 points in the opening frame. The Blue Jays also found luck fleeting from beyond the arc early on, shooting just 4-19 from long range during the first 20 minutes of play.  

As the first half wound down, the Blue Jays jumped ahead nine points, then a game-high mark, after a made free throw by Conor Gibson. The Mariners responded by ripping off a 10-3 run to close the stanza, which featured baskets by Robert Zirlis (Clinton, Conn.), Stokes, and a step back by Buscetto to send Mitchell into halftime trailing just 36-34.  

The tides shifted in the second half, as Johns Hopkins scored the first seven points out of the intermission, and outscored the Mariners 25-15 over the first 10 minutes, turning a two-point lead into a 61-49 advantage after Johansson sank a free throw at the 10:10 mark. Twice Mitchell trimmed the deficit back to 11, both times on three-pointers by Buscetto, but the Blue Jays proved too much to contain and gradually pulled away, leading by as many as 22 points in the waning moments.

The Mariners shot 41.5% from the floor, 31.6% from beyond the arc, and 78.6% from the free throw line, Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins was 47.1% overall, 35.5% from downtown, and 73.3% from the stripe. The Blue Jays used their size advantage to control down low, outrebounding Mitchell 46-32 and scoring 42 of their 89 points in the paint. Additionally, Mitchell forced 14 turnovers and got 14 points from their bench, while the Blue Jays forced just 11 turnovers and received 16 points from their bench.

Mitchell, making its fourth NCAA appearance, finished the year with a record of 23-5 under head coach Todd Peretz, good for the most wins in the program's Division III era.