BALTIMORE – The Haverford women's basketball team rode the seventh-best shooting night in program history (.520) to a 79-63 victory over the host Johns Hopkins Blue Jays on Thursday evening at Goldfarb Gym. The Fords clinched a spot in the Centennial Conference tournament with the win and improve to 17-6 (14-4 CC). Johns Hopkins falls to 10-11 overall (9-8 CC).
Haverford made 11 shots from beyond the arc, tying the program record for three-pointers in a single contest in the process. Macy Goldbach poured in a career-high 23 points with five three-pointers while Sierra Berkel tallied her fifth double-double effort of the season (13 points, 11 rebounds). Katie Cook (14) and Anna-Sophia Capizzi (12) also had double-digit scoring nights for Haverford.
Haverford again started on a hot streak, bursting out to a 16 point lead at 24-8 with just under a minute left in the first quarter. After Lexie Scholtz briefly gave Johns Hopkins a 3-2 lead with 9:01 left, Haverford took the reins, with a Capizzi trey putting the Fords up 17-6 ahead of a Maddie Gallic three that gave the Fords the 16 point cushion. The Fords shot 69.2 percent in the opening quarter of action, including a 4-5 mark from beyond the arc.
In the second quarter, the lead for the Fords stretched to as many as 19 as Capizzi knocked down a jumper with 5:13 left in the first half to give the Fords the commanding lead. A Scholtz layup with 1:50 left in the first cut the lead to 11 at 37-26. Goldbach responded with a jumper on the next possession for Haverford, restoring a 13 point lead at 39-26, the mark that would hold as the halftime score. The Fords shot 60 percent from the field in the first half to just 44 percent for the Blue Jays.
After the halftime intermission, Johns Hopkins came out with a renewed vigor on its home court, starting the half on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to just seven at 41-34. Goldbach hit a layup to give Haverford a nine point advantage at 43-34, but a 7-0 spurt for the hosts made it just a two point game at 43-41 following a Scholtz three-pointer with 2:58 left.
Capizzi answered on the other end of the quarter with a momentous three to put Haverford back up five. With 44 seconds left in the quarter, Goldbach drilled a three give Haverford a nine point lead, and she followed the jumper with a layup at the buzzer for an 11 point advantage.
Goldbach hit the first shot of the fourth, a three-pointer converted to go up 14 at 59-45. The lead stretched back to as many as 17 with a Berkel layup with 5:47 remaining in the contest. An 8-0 Johns Hopkins run cut the deficit to nine at 65-56 with just under three minutes remaining in the ballgame. Gallic hit the 11th three-pointer of the evening for Haverford with 2:15 left, giving Haverford a 68-56 cushion.
Johns Hopkins attempted to claw back into the contest with an aggressive fouling strategy, but the Fords went 10-10 from the charity stripe in the last two minutes of the contest to seal a second consecutive road victory. Scholtz had 19 to lead the Blue Jays while Lillian Scott had 17 for the hosts.
Haverford now returns to action on Saturday at home at the Calving J. Gooding '84 Arena as the Fords host the annual Senior Day game against McDaniel at 1:00 p.m. The men's team is slated to host McDaniel at approximately 3:00 p.m. Haverford will finish the regular season in the friendly confines of Gooding Arena on Wednesday night (6:00 p.m.) in a Hood Trophy rivalry matchup with Swarthmore.