BALTIMORE, MD – Junior Alex Vassila scored a game-high 18 points, grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds and added four blocked shots to lead the 25th-ranked Johns Hopkins women's basketball team to a 55-47 victory over Haverford in the Centennial Conference Semifinals Friday evening at Goldfarb Gymnasium. The win, which avenges two earlier losses to the Fords this season, propels the Blue Jays into the conference championship game for the second consecutive year and the 13th time since 1994.
The Blue Jays (23-3) led 27-24 early in the second half before a pair of free throws from Vassila ignited a 10-2 run that pushed the lead to 11 at 37-26. Senior Stephanie Fong added four points during the run, which also included a layup from freshman Haley Bush and a 15-foot jumper from sophomore Katie Brooks.
The Fords, who had topped the Blue Jays in close, low-scoring games twice previously this season, could never get closer than six points in the final 10 minutes and Vassila's efforts were a big reason why. Up by seven with just over three minutes remaining, the Blue Jays got back-to-back layups from Vassila in a 30-second span to push the lead back out to 49-38 and Fong went 6-of-6 from the line in the final 45 seconds to seal the victory.
In a game the Blue Jays never trailed, they couldn't quite put the Fords away either. Hopkins led 11-4 less than four minutes into the game as Vassila and junior Sarah Higbee both scored four points and Fong splashed in her only three-pointer of the game before the 16-minute mark.
Haverford (18-9) answered with a three-pointer by Elizabeth Lynch and back-to-back layups by Rachel Baskin and Dominique Meeks to knot the game at 11-11, but Vassila answered with a layup less than 30 seconds after Meeks scored and Hopkins never relinquished the lead after that.
A layup by Baskin to close the half made it 23-20 at intermission and she added a jumper just 11 seconds into the second half to pull the Fords within 23-22. A quick four-point spurt by the Blue Jays was answered by another Baskin layup that made it 27-24, but Vassila's free throws 90 seconds later ignited the 10-2 run that the Fords never recovered from and launched the Blue Jays back into the title game.
In addition to Vassila's efforts, the Blue Jays got 13 points and nine assists from Fong and eight points, eight rebounds and three assists from senior Chantel Mattiola. The Blue Jays held a commanding 43-30 advantage in rebounding and held the Fords to just 31-percent shooting from the field (18-of-58).
Baskin led the Fords with 14 points, while Lynch added 12 off the bench. Meeks chipped in with nine points and five rebounds, but the Fords couldn't overcome the early second-half spurt by the Blue Jays to fall in the first-ever appearance in the Centennial Semifinals.
Johns Hopkins will play the winner of the Franklin & Marshall-Muhlenberg semifinal in Saturday's championship game. Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg have met in eight previous Centennial title games, including three times since 2006.
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