Jan. 10, 2012

Box Score | Washington College Photo Gallery

BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins women's basketball used a 18-6 run in the final 6:38 of the game to defeat the visiting Shorewomen of Washington College 66-54 inside Goldfarb Gym Tuesday evening in Centennial Conference action.

With the win, the Blue Jays improved to 11-1 on the season and are off to their best start since the 2001-02 season when Hopkins went 15-1 to open the year. Hopkins moves to 6-1 in the Centennial while Washington falls to 8-6 on the year and 3-5 in the conference. The Blue Jays eighth-straight win snaps a six-game winning streak by the Shorewomen, which was their longest single-season winning streak in program history.

Senior guard Chantel Mattiola broke the school's career three-point record with her first trey of the game at 10:34 in the first half. She went on to hit three from beyond the arc to lead the Blue Jays with 15 points.

The Blue Jays led by as many as six points three different times in the first half but could not break away from the Shorewomen's tough defense. With 10:54 to go in the half, Washington tied the game for the third time and took their third lead behind three made free throws from Kelly Mitchell. The Shorewomen led 15-13 before Mattiola hit her record-breaking three at 10:34 to give the lead back to the Blue Jays for the final time in the half. Sophomore Fatu Conteh hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left until the half to put the Blue Jays up six, 29-23 but Washington's Meghan Tait answered with a layup to cut the lead to four, 29-25 at the intermission.

Senior Stephanie Fong hit a pair of free throws to cap a 10-5 run by the Blue Jays to open the second half over the first 4:12 of play to give Hopkins their largest lead of the game at that point at 39-30. The Shorewomen would not back down and countered with a 13-0 run to span five minutes and take the lead 43-39 with just over 10 minutes to play in regulation. The lead changed hands three more times over the next four minutes until Washington's Latisha Pledger hit both shots from the stripe to tie the game for the sixth time in the game at 48-48.

With 6:25 on the clock, Conteh forced a turnover and stole the ball to drive it back to the Hopkins basket and lay it in to give the Blue Jays back the lead, one, which they would not surrender. With 4:03 on the clock, Shorewoman Erin Fitzgerald took advantage of a foul and hit both of her free throws to pull the Shorewomen to within one, 52-51, but the Blue Jays scored 10 unanswered points over the next three minutes to build an 11-point lead with 1:02 to play. Mattiola hit both of her free throws in the last 23 seconds to push the lead to 12 and give the Blue Jays a home court 66-54 victory.

To go along with her game-leading 15 points, Mattiola handed out two assists and posted four steals. The Blue Jay bench once again fueled the offense, adding 30 points, 12 coming from Conteh. Though the Shorewomen won the rebounding battle 47-35, junior KaraLea Follmer posted a career-high 11 boards in her fifth start of the season.

The Blue Jays held the Shorewomen to a season-low 26.4 percent from the floor (14-for-53) while shooting 40.3 percent (25-for-62). Hopkins was 4-for-7 (57.1 percent) from beyond the arc.

Hopkins returns to the court when the Blue Jays host the Garnet of Swarthmore College on Thursday, January 12 in Goldfarb Gym. Tipoff is set for 4 pm.