BALTIMORE, MD- After a 26-day holiday break for the Johns Hopkins women's basketball team, they returned to the court Thursday night looking to pick up their first win over a ranked team on the season against the 23^rd-ranked Mary Washington. The Blue Jays stymied one of the top offenses in the country in the Eagles, holding them to just 21 points in the second half, to come away with a 56-52 victory inside Goldfarb Gym.
 
Coaches often turn to their mature players in late game situations to make winning plays for their team. JHU's head coach Katherine Bixby did just that in the final 20 seconds of the game when she drew up a play for graduate student Olivia Parisi with the game tied at 52.
 
Parisi received a pass in the paint and created some space for herself and knocked down a turn-around jumper with just 8.8 seconds remaining to put the Blue Jays on top. After forcing a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass for UMW, Parisi drew and foul and knocked down a pair of free throws to propel Hopkins to the win. Parisi made big plays down the stretch on the defensive end as well, coming up with three steals in the final four minutes of the game.
 
Coming into the contest, Mary Washington ranked 15^th in the nation in field goal percentage (.446) and 16^th in three-point percentage (.346). JHU continued their impressive play on the defensive side, forcing the Eagles to turn the ball over 19 times. They also held Mary Washington's shooters in check throughout the game, holding them to just 35% from the floor and 25% from three-point range. The third quarter was the most impressive display from Hopkins, as they held the Eagles to 15% from the field and held them to just two made field goals the entire quarter.
 
JHU played one of their best offensive quarters of the season in the opening quarter of the game. The Blue Jays put up 19 points while going 7-for-15 from the floor and junior Zoe Soule knocked down a couple jumpers at the end of the quarter to give Hopkins a 19-15 lead.
 
The game was tightly contest throughout with both team's largest lead being just six points in the first quarter. The lead changed hands five times and was tied seven times in the closely contested contest.
 
Johns Hopkins had three of their top four scorers come off the bench with Parisi and Soule leading the charge with 14 and 13 respectively. Greta Miller added ten points and was huge in the rebounding category coming away with 11. Jadyn Murray was also key off the bench providing eight points and six rebounds.
 
Keagan Schwab and Ashley Martin led the scoring for Mary Washington with 13 apiece. Jordan Carpenter was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards and ten points. UMW dropped to 10-2 on the season with the loss.

With the win the Blue Jays picked up their first win over a ranked team since February 10, 2022, when they defeated #25 Gettysburg 64-61. The team moved to 42-9 all-time under Katherine Bixby when playing at Goldfarb Gym.
 
The Blue Jays will return to the court when they take on conference foe Dickinson on the road on Wednesday, January 4^th (6 pm).