The Basics
• Score: Johns Hopkins-68, Swarthmore-57
• Records: JHU (11-2, 8-1 Centennial) • SWAT (8-4, 5-3 Centennial)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • Goldfarb Gymnasium
 
How it Happened

The Blue Jay offense shot 49% from the field and led for more than 37 minutes in a 68-57 victory over Swarthmore on Tuesday night. Johns Hopkins used a 12-3 run to finish the first quarter to jump ahead of Swarthmore. After taking a 17-7 lead early in the second quarter, Hopkins never led by less than nine for the rest of the contest. Diarra Oden scored 22 points to lead the Jays and the senior guard added five rebounds in the win. 

Emily Smith scored for Swarthmore two minutes into the first to give the Garnet a 4-2 lead. Erin Walsh scored for Hopkins on the next possession, starting the 12-3 Blue Jay run. Walsh scored again 90 seconds later off an offensive rebound to give the Jays an 8-4 lead. Oden and Michaela O'Neil scored on back-to-back possessions to give Hopkins a 12-4 lead with 3:43 to play. Christine Corpuz hit a pair of free throws with 1:28 left to give Hopkins a 14-7 lead after one.

JHU scored the first five points of the second quarter, getting a three from Oden and a driving layup from Emily Howie to take a 19-7 lead. With 7:02 to go in the half, Walsh scored again to give the Blue Jays a 23-10 lead. Both teams continued to trade buckets in the middle of the period before Jadyn Murray and O'Neil scored on two straight possessions to give Hopkins its biggest lead of the half at 31-15. Kim Kockenmeister cut the deficit to 13 on multiple occasions for Swarthmore, but Walsh scored with 1:32 left in the half to put the Jays up by 15. Murray scored once more for the Jays with 45 seconds remaining, sending Hopkins to halftime with a 37-22 lead. 

Greta Miller started the third quarter scoring, finishing a layup off a nice feed from Walsh. Miller's bucket put JHU up by 17, the biggest lead of the contest for Hopkins. Four straight points made it 39-26, but Howie drilled a triple to extend the lead to 16 with 7:10 left in the third period. After a free throw cut it back to 15, Kara Milliken scored her first bucket of the contest off a Howie assist to tie the largest lead of the game at 17 again. The Garnet offense was more effective in the third quarter, but the Jays had an answer at every turn. After getting it back down to 13, Oden hit a pull up jumper to push the lead to 48-33 with 3:29 in the third. Dana Bandurick scored with 18 seconds left in the third to make it four straight points for Swarthmore and send the game to the fourth with an 11-point JHU lead. 

Now 52-39 after a layup from Miller, Oden extended the lead to 16 with a three-pointer, making it 55-39 Blue Jays with nine minutes remaining. Bandurick scored four straight to make it 55-43, giving her 21 points on the night, but Walsh responded with a free throw and a layup to give the Jays a 58-43 lead with 6:11 to go. A quick 6-0 spurt brought the Hopkins lead under 10 for the first time since the end of the first quarter, but Oden made four straight free throws and the Jays lead was once again 13 with 3:45 remaining. Bandurick's final bucket of the contest came with 2:55 remaining, cutting the deficit to 11 and giving her 25 points, but Swarthmore never got any closer than that and the Blue Jays closed out their seventh straight victory, 68-57. 

 
What it Means
• The Blue Jays are 44-12 all-time versus the Garnet, winning back-to-back contests after falling to Swarthmore in December, 2019. 
 
• The Blue Jays win streak improves to seveb games. Seven is the program's second-longest win streak during Katherine Bixby's tenure. 

• Improving to 8-1 in Centennial play, JHU holds a 1.5 game lead over Washington College in the standings. The Jays are currently 0.5 games behind first-place Gettysburg at 8-0. 
 
Inside the Box Score
•  After taking on a secondary role in Saturday's win, Oden scored 22 on 8-17 to lead the Hopkins offense. This is the seventh game this season in which Oden has scored at least 20 points.  
  
• Walsh hit double figures for the second time this season, finishing with 13 points on 5-7 shooting. Walsh added eight rebounds and a career-best five assists. 
 
• While Swarthmore cleared the Blue Jays top-five national mark of 46.8 points allowed per contest, the Jays continue to push the way up the national leaderboard in rebounding margin. The Jays entered the night 12th in Division III and outrebounded the Garnet by 12 tonight. Six different players had at least five rebounds for Hopkins. 

• Hopkins shot better than 41% from the floor in each of the four periods on Tuesday night, shooting 56.3% in the second and 55.6% in the fourth. The Blue Jays' season mark improved to 39.3%. 

• The Blue Jays continue to knock down the freebies, shooting 15-17 from the charity stripe tonight. The Jays are now shooting 73.4% for the year, a number that would blow past the program seaon record of 70.9% from 2010-11. 
 
Up Next
• The Blue Jays will play their fourth of six games in 12 days on Thursday at Franklin & Marshall. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 pm in Lancaster, PA.