The Basics
• Score: Johns Hopkins - 62, Ursinus - 56
• Records: JHU (17-9) • Ursinus (13-13)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • Goldfarb Gym
• The Short Story: The Johns Hopkins women's basketball team advanced to the Centennial Conference semifinals with a 62-56 victory over fifth-seeded Ursinus College on Tuesday night.
How it Happened
• Ursinus scored the game's first nine points before the Blue Jays got on the board with a Lexie Scholtz jumper. Lillian Scott followed with a jumper to make the score 9-4, but Lydia Konstanzer hit a layup to put the Bears back up six. Marissa Varnado cut the Bear's lead in half with a three and a layup from Rory Cole brought Hopkins to within one with four minutes left. A Konstanzer jumper put Ursinus back up three, but once again a layup from Cole brought Hopkins to within one at 13-12. Two free throws by Scholtz gave JHU its first lead of the game at the 2:25 mark of the first, as Hopkins went up 14-13. Konstanzer hit two free throws on the other end to put the visitors up one, but Sophia Way hit from deep to put JHU up 17-15 with 2:46 left. Ursinus scored nine of the quarters last 11 points to take a 24-20 lead at the end of one.
• Hopkins opened the second on a 9-0 run to pull ahead by five. Back-to-back layups by the Bears later in the quarter put Ursinus back up one at 32-31 with 2:31 remaining in the half. The Bears held a four-point lead with four seconds remaining before Scott hit a fade-away jumper to send the teams into the locker room with Ursinus holding a slight two-point lead at 37-35.
• A three from Marisa Morano put the Bears up eight, but Scholtz hit from behind the arc to pull Hopkins to within five with 6:04 remaining in the third. Ursinus went on a 5-2 run to go back up eight, but back-to-back layups from Cole pulled JHU to within four at 48-44 to end the third.
• Way opened the fourth with a layup to cut the deficit to two, and Madison McGrath gave the Blue Jays a 49-48 lead with a three at 8:41. Konstanzer put the Bears back in front with a layup, however, Scott responded with a three-point play to put the Blue Jays back in the lead at 52-50. Maya Kornfeld tied the game at 52 with a jumper at 4:56, but back-to-back buckets from Way put JHU up four with 4:08 remaining. Scholtz extended the Blue Jay lead to six with a jumper at 2:35, but a layup from Aliyah Stephens with just over a minute remaining made the score 58-54. The Blue Jays would go 4-6 from the free throw line in the game's waning seconds to claim the 62-56 victory and advance to the conference semifinals.
What it Means
• This is JHU's 20th appearance in the Centennial Conference Tournament and the Blue Jays now have a record of 20-15.
• Hopkins is 2-2 in the opening round of the tournament and has an overall record of 16-5 at home.
• The Blue Jays are 4-1 against the Bears in the tournament and 37-9 overall. Johns Hopkins swept Ursinus in the regular season, defeating the Bears 68-39 at home and 70-51 on the road.
• JHU will be making its 18th trip to the semifinals where the Blue Jays are 14-3.
Inside the Box Score
• Way led Hopkins with 14 points followed by Scott with 12 and Scholtz with 12. Cole also scored in double-figures, scoring ten points on the night.
• Cole Scholtz and Way each grabbed eight rebounds in the contest.
• Konstanzer led all scorers with 21 points.
Up Next
• The Blue Jays will travel to Gettysburg to take on the top-seeded Bullets on Friday, February 20. Tip-time is scheduled for 6 pm. Gettysburg leads the all-time postseason series 2-0.