NASHVILLE, Tenn. (December 29, 2022) – The Denison University men's basketball team dropped a neutral-site contest to No. 17 nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins University, 64-41, in its only game of the D3 Music City Classic, hosted at Welch College.

Nick Heath would be the only Big Red scorer in double digits, finishing with 13 points on three 3-pointers and accounting for 11 of the final 13 points for Denison. Darren Rubin contributed six points while both Will Hunter and Ricky Radtke added five points and Radtke finished with a game-high nine rebounds.

The first half was a story of cold shooting for the Big Red as they would only see one point on the board in the first five minutes, leading to a 15-1 deficit to start the game, and finished the opening period with only six made field goals (6-for-26; 23.08 percent) and one made 3-pointer (1-for-13; 7.69 percent).

The Big Red would make their first two field goals of the game thanks to a floater from Heath and a jumper from Aidan King to trail 18-5 just under seven and a half minutes into the game.

Denison would finally get into double digits in the scoring column with nine minutes remaining in the first half thanks to a 3-pointer from Rubin and a layup from Ratdke to cut the deficit to 10 points at 20-10.

Hunter then scored in the paint to get the Big Red to within eight at 20-12 with seven minutes to go in the first half, but then after a tip-in by Radtke made it 26-15 with three and a half minutes to go before halftime, the Blue Jays answered with a 3-pointer and then added another bucket to head into the locker room with a 31-15 advantage.

Johns Hopkins then opened up the second half with seven straight points to go up by 23 (38-15), and never looked back.

Denison will welcome in Wittenberg University after the New Year to Livingston Gymnasium at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 4.