BALTIMORE, Md. – The Franklin & Marshall women's basketball team (13-11, 6-7 CC) was defeated on the road by No. 3 Johns Hopkins (22-0, 13-0 CC), 80-47, in Saturday's Centennial Conference (CC) contest. The Blue Jays jumped out an early lead and never took their foot off the gas as the hosts led wire-to-wire in the contest.

The Diplomats fell into a hole early with the Blue Jays taking a 9-0 lead to start the game. Hailey Cabanas got F&M on the scoreboard with a jumper at the 4:03 mark. Lizzie Neville followed with a steal and a layup to cut the deficit to five. After JHU made a layup on the next possession, Mackenzie Ward connected on a jumper to reduce the Blue Jays' lead to 11-6 with 2:48 on the clock. The hosts grew their lead to nine with scores on the next two possessions, but Neville knocked down a pair of free throws in the closing minute. Johns Hopkins, however, ended the quarter with momentum as a layup gave the home team a 17-8 lead through 10 minutes of play.

The Blue Jays added to their lead at the beginning of the second quarter, taking a 21-8 advantage in the first minute of the frame. Gia Sioutis connected from mid-range to reduce the deficit to 11. From that point, Johns Hopkins scored the next seven points of the contest to take a 28-10 advantage. Sioutis ended the run with a jumper to cap F&M's scoring drought with 5:12 on the clock. JHU drilled a three-pointer, but Fiona Reckner answered with a triple of her own to cut the Blue Jays' lead to 31-15. However, Johns Hopkins began to separate from the Diplomats even more as the hosts took a 46-21 lead into the halftime break.

Johns Hopkins started the second half red hot from the field, scoring the first eight points of the third quarter. A pair of free throws from Neville broke up the JHU run to make the score 54-23 with 7:41 on the clock. Despite the effort from F&M, the Blue Jays grew their lead as large as 41 in the second half to stay undefeated going into the final week of the regular season.

F&M shot 25.0 percent (17-of-68) from the field, 15.0 percent (3-of-20) from beyond the arc, and 71.4 percent (10-of-14) from the free throw line in the game. Johns Hopkins shot 43.1 percent from the field, while outrebounding the Diplomats, 64-35, in the contest.

Neville ended the day with 11 points, while making 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Neville also recorded two assists and five steals. Sioutis followed with nine points, two blocks, and two steals. Ward finished the game with eight points, four rebounds, and two steals.

Franklin & Marshall now gets set for a key matchup on Wednesday, hosting Dickinson at 6:00 p.m. in F&M's regular-season finale.