GALLATIN, TN – The 17^th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's basketball team showed little rust after a 26-day layoff as the Blue Jays cruised to a 64-41 win over Denison at the Music City Classic Thursday night.
 
Hopkins jumped out to a 15-1 lead and never looked back. Ethan Bartlett, Tom Quarry, Sidney Thybulle and Brian Johansson all scored for the Blue Jays in the game's opening five minutes. The Big Red finally got their offense going with an 11-5 run to pull back within eight at the 7:08-mark. Jayden Nixon sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Thybulle layup to spark an 11-3 burst to end the half. After a Ricky Radtke tip-in, Carson James drained a three-pointer and Thybulle got two points in the paint to cap the run and send JHU into the half with a 31-15 lead.
 
The Blue Jays picked up right where they left off as they opened the second on a 12-3 run to push out to a 43-18 lead at the 16:44-mark. Six different Blue Jays scored during the opening run, which was capped by a John Windley three-pointer. Leading 43-21, Hopkins put together another double-digit run and its lead ballooned to 31 with 7:23 to play. Four Blue Jays combined to outscore the Big Red, 14-5, led by Bartlett's nine points as JHU took a 57-26 lead.
 
The teams would trade scores over the ensuing six minutes before Denison got back-to-back buckets in the final minute to account for the 64-41 final.
 
Bartlett led the Blue Jays with 13 points, going 6-of-8 from the field, to go with five rebounds and two steals. Thybulle went 5-of-8 from the floor to finish with 11 points, eight boards and a career-best five assists. Quarry chipped in 10 points to push his career total to 938. Nick Heath led the Big Red with 13 points while Radtke had a game-high nine rebounds.
 
Hopkins shot 49.1 percent from the field while holding Denison to just 26.3 percent. The Big Red's 41 points are the fewest allowed by the Blue Jays this season. It is also the 15^th time under head coach Josh Loeffler that JHU has held an opponent to under 49 points.
 
Hopkins returns to action at the Music City Classic on Friday, December 30 versus Coe. Tip-off is slated for 4:30 pm CT.