BALTIMORE – Junior Julie McGrory (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) worked her Wednesday night magic again, scoring on a putback to force overtime and finishing with a team-high 17 points as Gettysburg knocked off Centennial Conference leader Johns Hopkins 61-57 in Goldfarb Gym.
Gettysburg (15-5, 10-5 CC) put a stop to Johns Hopkins' (16-4, 13-3 CC) seven-game winning streak and recorded a comeback on the Blue Jays' home floor for the second consecutive season. The Bullets trailed by 11 at halftime of last season's affair in Goldfarb before bouncing back for a 66-62 win.
One week removed from netting a career-high 25 points and scoring two game-tying buckets in a double-overtime win over Dickinson College on Jan. 26, McGrory led the comeback charge on Wednesday. She put the Bullets ahead 49-47 with 2:27 left in regulation before back-to-back buckets by Lyndsay Burton and Alex Vassila swung the momentum back in favor of the hosts with 48 seconds left.
Johns Hopkins looked to pad the advantage, but two offensive rebounds and three free throws went for naught in the next 20 seconds.
With time winding down in regulation, the Bullets went to McGrory who had her shot blocked initially by Kat Fox. But the junior gathered the ball and went up again to tie the score at 51 as the clock struck zero.
Gettysburg wasted no time in the extra session as sophomore Alyssa Oursler (Middletown, Md./Middletown) knocked down a jumper 35 seconds in. Johns Hopkins came up empty on three shots and two free throws on its next possession before the Bullets' Katie Earley (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) put Gettysburg up 55-51 with a jumper. After a Blue Jay turnover, junior Sara Kinsley (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) added another bucket to pad the lead.
Johns Hopkins closed to 59-57 on a three-pointer by Stephanie Fong with 1:07 left in the first overtime, but senior Mary Spicer (Floral Park, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) provided the dagger with a lay-up with 27 ticks left. The Blue Jays missed the final three shots to finish just 2-for-11 in the overtime period.
Johns Hopkins surged to the lead in the first half at 11-4 before Gettysburg ran off a 12-3 run capped by an old-fashioned three-point play by McGrory at 4:21. Fong answered with back-to-back threes to help boost the hosts back ahead. The Blue Jays entered the half with a 25-21 lead.
The Blue Jays extended the advantage to eight (33-25) on back-to-back lay-ups by Burton at the start of the second stanza, but Gettysburg answered with a 9-0 run to take a 34-33 lead with 12:38 to play in regulation. The lead would change hands eight times over the course of the final period.
Gettysburg improved its shooting touch in each half en route to a 39.7 clip for the game, slightly better than the hosts (32.0 percent). Johns Hopkins took advantage inside with a 26-18 edge in paint scoring and a 50-47 lead on the glass, but the Bullets' bench came up big by out-scoring the Blue Jay reserves 36-8.
McGrory finished 6-of-17 from the field with seven rebounds. Oursler recorded 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and four steals. Spicer finished with seven points, seven assists, and four rebounds.
Fong led Johns Hopkins with 19 points on the strength of six three-pointers. Burton finished with a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds, as did Vassila with 10 points and a dozen boards.
Gettysburg returns home this Saturday, Feb. 5, against Ursinus College at 2 p.m. The squad will be participating in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone, a national initiative to raise breast cancer awareness. The team will be selling t-shirts and 50-50 raffle tickets at the game in addition to taking pledges for each assist they record in the game.