Feb. 22, 2013

Box Score

GETTYSBURG, PA - An untimely second half drought put an end to the Johns Hopkins women's basketball team's season Friday night as it fell to top-seeded Gettysburg, 56-43, in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Tournament. Gettysburg advanced to the finals to play Swarthmore for the title.

Hopkins (16-11) made a strong bid to get back in the game by cutting its deficit to four points, 42-38, with 2:51 to play after a four-point play by Jessica Brown. The Jays would never get closer, however, as Gettysburg (20-6) made 11 free throws down the stretch to ice the victory. The Bullets' Caroline Murphy made seven of those free throws to finish with 15 points and eight rebounds.

Gettysburg jumped out to an early 10-5 lead with the help of a raucous home crowd at its back. The Blue Jays settled down, however, and pulled even after a basket-and-one by senior Alex Vassila and a coast-to-coast lay-up by freshman Liz Tommasi.

Hopkins led by as much as six points, 18-12, after an outside jumper by Katie Clark with 1:26 to play, but the Bullets scored five straight points to cut the deficit to 18-17 at the halftime break.

Sophomore Stacy Fairey opened the second half with a 3-pointer, but the Jays failed to score over the course of the next seven minutes and fell behind 32-23 with 9:30 remaining. Vassila cut the Bullets' lead to four points after two buckets, but Gettysburg promptly opened the lead to nine points again.

Vassila scored eight points and added 11 rebounds, finishing her career as the only player in Hopkins history to record 1,000 points, 800 rebounds and 200 blocks. Fairey had nine points, while Tommasi added eight points, four assists and four steals.

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