BALTIMORE, MD -- Johns Hopkins guard Maureen Myers made 11-of-15 from the field, including six-of-seven from beyond the arc, and tacked on five-of-six at the free-throw line for a game high 33 points as the Johns Hopkins knocked off Franklin & Marshall College 85-76 in the Centennial Conference women's basketball semifinals.
Leading 48-43 at halftime, the Blue Jays pulled away from F&M as Hopkins pushed the lead out to 10 points at 55-45 with 17:44 left on the game clock behind a three-pointer by Myers and a pair of lay-ups by Ashanna Randall. Trailing 59-49 with 16:38, the Diplomats trimmed the margin back to 59-54 as forward Lauren Dodrill (Jr., Timonium, MD/Roland Park) made the front-end of a pair of free-throws, guard Maura Lentz (Jr., Baltimore, MD/Catonsville) knocked down a pair of shots at the charity stripe and center Amy Abernathy (Sr., Far Hills, NJ/American School-Paris) dropped in a lay-up.
Hopkins responded as Ashley Felix made a free-throw and Katie Kimball drained a three-pointer to move the lead back to nine points at 63-54 before guard Courtney Tierney (Sr., Princeton, NJ/Hun School) made a lay-up to trim the lead back to seven.
The Diplomats closed to four points at 63-59 on their next possession as Lentz drilled a "three" off an assist from Tierney, but Jays reeled off an 11-4 sprint to take a 74-63 lead with 6:05 left on the clock.
However, F&M fought back as Tierney fired home a three before Amanda Leese made one-of-two free-throws for Hopkins to cut the lead to nine points. Abernathy finished a feed from Tierney at 4:14 to move within six points before making the front-end of a pair of free throws to a 75-69 deficit with 3:43 to go. The senior center powered her way down the lane on the Diplomats' next possession for a lay-up to shave the lead back to four points at 75-71, but Myers drilled trey and made a pair of free-throws to push the lead back to 80-71 with 1:13 left on the clock.
Franklin & Marshall was able to move within five points with 41 seconds left on the clock as point guard Dana Johns (So., York, PA/Eastern York) made three-of-three at the charity stripe, but Blue Jays sealed their ninth trip to the Centennial Conference title game in the last 10 years by hitting 7-of-10 free throws down the stretch. Myers and Julie Miller both hit three-of-four from the line to secure the Blue Jays' 21st straight victory at home.
In the first half, F&M responded to a lay-up by JHU's Trista Snyder at the 19:48 mark with a 7-0 run off a three-pointer from Tierney and a pair of free-throws by Lentz with 77 seconds into the game.
Leading 16-10 with 14:57 to go until intermission following a jumper by Tierney, the Diplomats saw their lead dwindle to a two points as Snyder and Kelly Rumsey tallied buckets to slice F&M's lead to 16-14 with 13:32 on the clock. Tierney responded with a pair of free throws before Tracey Spinner (Sr., Pennington, NJ/Princeton Day) arched in a three-pointer off a Tierney assist with 11:51 left in the first half.
Hopkins responded as Leese made a lay-up and Myers fired back-to-back three-pointers to give the Jays a 22-21 lead at the 10:25 mark. Tierney and Spinner tallied baskets to put Franklin & Marshall back in front at 25-22, but Randall made a lay-up and Myers banked in a three-pointer to put the Jays in front 27-25.
Dodrill netted a lay-up to knot the score at 27-27 with 6:55 left in the first half. Randall dropped in a basket and Tierney made a "three" in the next 30 seconds to put F&M in front by a point. Kimball and Johns both made treys to move the score to 33-32 in favor of the Diplomats at the 5:36 mark.
However, Hopkins took control of the half in the closing minutes as Myers made back-to-back jumpers and Alissa Burkholder drilled a three-pointer to put JHU in front 39-33 with 4:10 until halftime.
Dodrill tallied a basket to cut the lead to four, Kimball made a three to push it back to seven and Lentz drained a trey to trim it back to four again with 2:38 on the clock. Leese and Myser made baskets to push the lead out to eight points at 46-38, but Abernathy tallied a lay-up and a free-throw with 59 seconds to go until halftime for the 46-41 score at the break.
Overall, Tierney led the way for the Diplomats in the game with 23 points, while Abernathy, the 2004 Centennial Conference Player of the Year, added 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Lentz chipped in 10 points and a game high six assists, while Dodrill and Johns tacked on 11 and 10 points, respectively.
For the Jays, Randall and Kimball netted 14 and 11 points, respectively, as the victory marks the 11th straight for Hopkins, which improves to 23-2 with the win while F&M falls to 12-12.
The Blue Jays will meet second-seeded McDaniel in the championship game Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Goldfarb Gym as the Green Terror defeated Muhlenberg 83-76 in the other semifinal.
McDaniel fell behind Muhlenberg, 32-21 with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half, but closed the first half on a 14-6 run to pull within 38-36. It took McDaniel less than three minutes to take the lead for good as the Terror opened the second half with a 15-2 run to take a 51-40 lead. Kristy Costa scored five points during the spree and Katy Powell added four.
McDaniel maintained at least a six-point lead for the next nine minutes and led 62-52 after a Jacqueline Pundt lay-up with just under eight minutes to play. However, Muhlenberg outscored the Green Terror, 17-8 over the next five minutes and a Kristen Piscadlo lay-up for the Mules at the 3:45 mark made it 71-69, McDaniel. Piscadlo's lay-up was quickly answered by a Sara Franz lay-up and McDaniel built the lead back to seven after a pair of free throws by Toby McIntire with three minutes remaining.
The Mules cut the deficit to three points twice in the final two minutes, but McDaniel answered each time to move back into the championship game for the third straight year. This will be the second straight year the Blue Jays and Green Terror have met in the Centennial Conference Championship game. Last season, the Blue Jays defeated McDaniel, 82-58 to secure the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
