LEXINGTON, Va. — The Washington and Lee men's basketball team was outscored, 29-17, in the second half, as Johns Hopkins pulled away for a 61-48 victory in the championship of the W&L Holiday Tournament on Tuesday in the Warner Center.

The Generals (3-8) trailed, 32-31, at the start of the second stanza, but the Blue Jays (7-2) scored six straight in the first three minutes to take a 38-31 lead. Over the next four minutes, JHU stretched the advantage to 46-35, capped with layup by senior guard Jimmy Hammer (Collegeville, Pa./Germantown Academy).

W&L responded with two layups by first-year forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park), and then cut the deficit to four (46-42) on the triple by senior forward Jim Etling (Loveland, Colo./Loveland) with 10:12 left in the game.

The Blue Jays would go back up six two minutes later, but a layup by first-year guard Michael Hegar (Cary, N.C./GRACE Christian) closed the gap to 48-44 with 7:58 remaining. It would be as close as the Blue and White would get the rest of the way, as JHU finished the contest on a 13-4 run to reach the final margin.  

Junior forward Andrew Franz (Charlotte, N.C./Ravenscroft) came off the bench with a team-best 15 points on 6-of-8 from the field. He also had four rebounds. Murtha finished with 13 points and five rebounds. His performance over the two-day tournament led to him being named to the All-Tournament Team.

Hammer led the Blue Jays with 18 points, five rebounds and two assists, while sophomore forward Ryan Curran (Flanders, N.J./Delbarton School) notched 17 points and eight boards.

JHU shot 45.8 percent (22-of-48) and committed 13 turnovers. The Generals finished 19-of-47 (40.4 percent) from the floor and coughed up the ball 21 times.

W&L returns to action on Wednesday, January 7, when it hosts Emory & Henry at 7:00 pm.

W&L Holiday All-Tournament Team
Josh Karsner (Centre)
Hayden Harkins (Elmira)
Clayton Murtha (W&L)
Ryan Curran (JHU)
Jimmy Hammer (JHU) (MVP)

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