BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins women's basketball team kicked off a two-game homestand with a matchup against Haverford Saturday afternoon, using a career outing from Layla Henderson to secure their largest win of the season, an 82-33 win over the Fords. The victory is the Blue Jays' 12th straight, tying for the second longest win streak in program history only to their 15 consecutive from the 2021-22 season.
Henderson was the star of the show in Saturday's blowout win, tallying a season and career-best 21 points on 7-11 shooting including 2-4 from 3-point land and a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe to lead all scorers. Jadyn Murray (12) and Michaela O'Neil (12) also got into double figures, with Grace Soltes narrowly missing out with a career-best eight points.
Hopkins (13-1, 9-0 Centennial) dominated the interior all afternoon en route to the 49-point win, outrebounding Haverford (5-9, 2-7 Centennial) 61-41 — paced by a team-high nine from Macie Feldman — and outscoring the Fords 38-12 in the paint.
It took just five seconds for the Blue Jays to take the lead on a 3-pointer from Elisabeth Peebles, grabbing immediate control with a game-opening 10-3 run. Haverford cut the lead to six on a made free throw before a Murray turnaround ignited another 9-0 run to five Hopkins a double-digit lead at 19-4. From there the Fords would hit their second jumper of the quarter — they would be held to just four made buckets in the entire first half — and two more free throws to cut back into the lead, but Murray's 9th and 10th points of the quarter as well as a pair of freebies by O'Neil with one second left sent the Jays into the first break up 25-9.
The second quarter was a defensive showcase for Hopkins, who held Haverford without a made basket until there were just 55 seconds left in the frame. An 11-0 run to open the quarter was halted by a Fords free throw, only for another 9-0 run with buckets from Greta Miller and Kara Milliken and free throws by Beth Corelli ballooning the lead to 45-10. Haverford hit their first and second shots of the quarter in the final minute around a Zoe Soule free throw to make it a 46-14 game at halftime.
Saturday's third quarter was the most tightly contested of the day with neither side able to get much going offensively. A pair of free throws by O'Neil kept the lead at 32 before a near-three minute scoring drought was ended by another visit to the charity stripe by Maya Johnson, who sank 1-2 to make it 54-21. The Fords got two back before layups by Corelli and Soltes in the final three minutes gave the Blue Jays their largest lead, 58-23, heading into the fourth.
The final frame belonged to Henderson, who scored 16 of her game-high 21 points in the period including Hopkins' first five on a layup and 3-pointer to make it 63-25. The lead got to 40 on a Johnson free throw, with Henderson and Soltes combining to score the Jays next 15 points — eleven of which were scored by the freshman — putting Hopkins in front 80-31. The final bucket of the game came from Abby St. Onge to secure the 82-33 win.
Next up for Hopkins is a matchup with Washington College Wednesday, Jan. 17, with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m.