Feb. 28, 2004

Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Senior guard Maureen Myers (Waverly, PA/Abington Heights) scored a career-high 33 points and top-seeded Johns Hopkins held off upstart Franklin & Marshall, 85-76 in the Centennial Conference Women's Basketball Semifinals at Goldfarb Gymnasium Saturday afternoon. The win is the 11th straight for Johns Hopkins (one shy of the school record), which improves to 23-2 with the win. F&M falls to 12-12. The Blue Jays will meet second-seeded McDaniel in the championship game Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm at Goldfarb Gym. McDaniel defeated Muhlenberg, 83-76 in the other semifinal.

The Blue Jays led 48-43 at the half and the Diplomats were within three after a basket by Lauren Dodrill (Timonium, MD/Roland Park) on F&M's first possession of the second half. A three-pointer by Myers and back-to-back layups by junior forward Ashanna Randall (Media, PA/Penncrest) quickly pushed the lead to 10 at 55-45. The lead hovered in the six-to-10-point range for the next eight minutes until the Diplomats pulled to within four at 63-59 on a three-pointer by Maura Lentz (Baltimore, MD/Catonsville).

Myers once again gave the Blue Jays some breathing room as she hit a layup, a three-pointer and a 10-foot jumper to quickly push the lead to 74-63 with 6:05 remaining. The Diplomats, as they had the entire game, fought back to cut the deficit to 75-71 as a three-pointer by Courtney Tierney (Princeton, NJ/Hun School) and a pair of layups by Amy Abernathy (Far Hills, NJ/America School-Paris) fueled a quick, 8-1 run over a span of less than three minutes.

The 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 freshman Julie Miller (Annandale, VA/Thomas Jefferson) both hit 3-of-4 from the line to secure the Blue Jays' 21st straight victory at home.

Myers, whose previous career high was a 24-point effort in a win over Swarthmore on February 6, 2002, hit 11-of-15 shots from the floor, including 6-of-7 from three-point range and 5-of-6 from the line. She added three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Randall scored 14 points and added eight rebounds and a pair of steals and junior Katie Kimball (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) chipped in with 11 points and five rebounds as the Blue Jays improved to 9-0 all-time in the Centennial semifinals.

The Diplomats, who lost to Hopkins for the third time this season, got 23 points from Tierney and 16 points and eight rebounds from Abernathy. Dodrill added 11 points and Lentz chipped in with 10.

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 (Galloway, NJ/Absegami) scored five points during the spree and Katy Powell (Smithsburg, MD/Smithsburg) added four.

McDaniel maintained at least a six-point lead for the next nine minutes and led 62-52 after a Jacqueline Pundt (Mt. Airy, MD/Western Tech) layup with just under eight minutes to play. However, Muhlenberg outscored the Green Terror, 17-8 over the next five minutes and a Kristen Piscadlo (Somerset, NJ/Immaculata) layup for the Mules at the 3:45 mark made it 71-69, McDaniel. Piscadlo's layup was quickly answered by a Sara Franz (Catonsville, MD/Seton Keough) layup and McDaniel built the lead back to seven after a pair of free throws by Toby McIntire (Crofton, NMD/St. Mary's) 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.

Centennial Conference Women's Basketball Semifinals

Semifinal #1

#3 Muhlenberg (19-7) 38-38/76

#2 McDaniel (22-3) 36-47/83

Semifinal #2

#4 Franklin & Marshall (12-12) 43-33/76

#1 Johns Hopkins (23-2) 48-37-85

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