Box Score
HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College defended its home court by taking down Gettysburg College 61-49 in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Women's Basketball Championships Friday evening inside Gooding Arena.
Haverford (22-3) led wire-to-wire in clinching a spot in the championship game for the first time in school history. The Fords will face the winner of Friday's second semifinal between McDaniel College (19-5) and Johns Hopkins University (17-7) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Gettysburg (16-10) received 13 points and nine rebounds from senior
Caroline Murphy (Chatham, N.J./Chatham). Sophomore
Emily Duggan (Marmora, N.J./Ocean City) added 10 points and 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Senior
Rianna Doane (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) posted eight points and four rebounds.
Hosting the conference semifinals and championship for the first time, Haverford scored the first seven points capped with a three-pointer by Elizabeth Lynch. The advantage would grow to 12 (23-11) following a jumper by Hope Rainey with 4:29 remaining in the opening period.
The Bullets closed the gap with an 8-2 run to end the stanza. A putback by
Jessica Porter (Narberth, Pa./Lower Merion) with five seconds left set the score at 25-19 heading into the locker room.
Gettysburg sliced the gap to three several times in the opening minutes of the final period with a lay-up by Murphy making it 32-29 with 12:43 to play. Haverford answered every push by the Bullets, including a 7-0 run after Murphy's bucket to push the lead back to double-figures (39-29) with just over 10 minutes left.
A three-pointer by Doane cut the deficit back down to five (39-34), but that would be as close as Gettysburg would get. An 8-0 run ending with an old-fashioned three-point play by Nina Voith set the score at 47-34 under the five-minute mark.
The Fords sealed the win from the free throw line, hitting 8-of-10 attempts at the charity stripe inside the final 2:06.
Haverford, which entered the contest ranked 11th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, held Gettysburg to 17-of-60 from the field (28.3 percent). The Fords held a 17-4 advantage in points off turnovers and out-rebounded the Bullets 45-42.
Voith led the Fords with 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Lynch and Jacquelyn Pizzuto each tallied nien points, while Shannon Smith grabbed nine rebounds and scored six points.
Murphy led the Bullets in scoring for the 17th time this season, capping an outstanding career on the court. She finished as the school's career leader in free throw percentage (.859), while finishing top 10 in games played (T-4th, 104), free throws made (5th, 250), blocked shots (5th , 98), and points (10th, 1,054). Doane finished among the program's all-time leaders in steals, tying for fourth with 189.
