Feb. 14, 2012

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - It took 2:14 for either team to score, but senior Kat Fox hit a free throw for the first basket of the game as the #25 Johns Hopkins women's basketball team went on a 12-4 run to open the Centennial Conference clash with Franklin & Marshall. The Blue Jays ran away with a 68-40 win inside Goldfarb Gym to clinch the regular season title for the second year in a row.

Johns Hopkins built its largest lead of the game with 1:55 to go in the second half, outscoring Franklin & Marshall 6-3 over 3:07 to take a 68-37 lead. The Diplomats scored the last three points of the contest, hitting three of their final four free throws, but were held to a season-low 40 points in the loss.

With 11:20 to go in the first, the Blue Jays (21-3, 16-3 CC) broke open the game, scoring eight unanswered points over a span of 3:26 to take a 20-6 lead with 7:54 to play. The Blue Jays continued to pull away from the Diplomats (17-7, 14-5 CC) and senior Stephanie Fong hit both free throws before Chantel Mattiola hit a jumper with 22 second left on the clock to give Hopkins its largest lead of the half, 33-17, going into intermission.

The Diplomats came out of the break and outscored the Blue Jays 6-2 over the first 3:36 to cut the Hopkins' lead to 12, 35-23, but that would be as close as the Diplomats would come to the Blue Jays. Hopkins used a 13-2 run over the next five minutes, that was capped by a jumper from freshman Haley Bush, to put JHU on top, 47-25 with 12:35 to play.

With 9:08 left on the clock, Bush converted a layup off a pass from junior Alex Vassila and kicked off a 9-2 spurt that covered 2:37 of play and put the Blue Jays up 60-33 with 6:29 remaining. The Blue Jays hit the final four field goals of the game in the last 5:02 of play to cap seal a 68-40 victory.

The Blue Jays' defense was the star of the game, holding the Diplomats to a season-low 40 points and 20.0 percent shooting (10-for-53) from the field. Hopkins also kept F&M to 0-for-8 from beyond the arc, the first time this season the Diplomats did not hit a triple. Hopkins shot 45.6 percent (26-for-57) from the field and outrebounded the Diplomats 48-37. The Blue Jay bench chipped in 27 points while holding the F&M bench to just six.

Mattiola paced the scoring with 16 points while going 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Fong chipped in 10 points and handed out a game-high five assists. Vassila poured in 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Alexa Barbush led the Diplomats in scoring with 13 points while Kristina McCarthy pulled down a game-high 11 boards.

Johns Hopkins returns to action when the Blue Jays host Bryn Mawr for the final game of the regular season on Thursday, February 18. Tipoff is set for 7 pm.