Box Score SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Despite rallying all the way back from a 17-point first-half deficit, the Swarthmore College women's basketball team (9-2, 5-1) could not pull off the incredible comeback, as visiting Johns Hopkins (5-8, 3-5) held on for a 77-66 victory on Tuesday afternoon from Tarble Pavilion.
The loss is the Garnet's first Centennial Conference defeat of the season.
Madeline Ross led the Garnet with 21 points. Freshman Jessica Jowdy finished with 10 steals, which is two shy of the Centennial Conference record and one shy of the program record.
Katie Lytle and Elle Larsen each managed double-digit performances with 17 and 14 points, respectively.
Liz Tommasi led the offensive effort for the Blue Jays with 21 points, 15 of which came in the first half alone. Alex Vassila, playing in just 20 minutes, notched 17 points and 18 rebounds, while Stacy Fairey contributed 16 points in the winning effort.
Opening the game with a 11-0 run, Johns Hopkins shot 56.7 percent from the field in the first half with strong performances from Tommasi and Fairey. The Garnet struggled to keep the scoring deficit under 10 points until the final 3:28 minutes of the half with a 8-0 run of its own. Larsen collected six of eight points during that run to put the score in JHU's favor 39-30 at halftime.
Swarthmore continued its scoring surge with a 15-4 run to open the second frame. Jowdy swiped the steal and layup to give the Garnet its first lead of the game at 44-43 with 14:08 remaining. The score stayed close over the next eight minutes with four ties and two lead changes. The Blue Jays regained the lead for good, 59-57, at 5:42 with a jumper from Ciara McCullagh.
The Blue Jays finished the game shooting 59.2 percent from the field and 73.7 percent at the charity stripe and had seven blocks, four coming at the hands of Vassila.
Swarthmore will return to action on Thursday, January 10th as it travels to McDaniel College for a 7 p.m. tip-off with the Green Terror.
