CHESTERTOWN — The Shore ladies are Centennial Conference tournament bound for the fourth year in a row under head coach Alisha Mosley, and they’ll play at home Tuesday for an opening-round game.
No. 4 seed Washington will host No. 5 seed McDaniel. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
In their only meeting this year, McDaniel (17-8, 8-6 CC) defeated Washington, 51-43, in Chestertown on Feb. 5.
Tuesday’s game is a ticketed event. You must purchase tickets ahead of time. See https://washcollsports.com/splash.aspx?id=splash_12&path=wbball.
Washington upset Ursinus on Saturday in the regular-season finale, 56-50, to lock down a home playoff game.
The locals avenged a 65-59 loss at Ursinus last month to improve to 16-9 on the season, and 9-6 in the conference.
They closed out the first half on a 12-4 run to pull ahead at the break, 24-16, and led the rest of the way.
Junior Kaitlyn Boggs and senior Karry Kelliher had monster games for Washington, each pulling down nine rebounds and collectively scoring 38 points.
Boggs and Kelliher each had five blocks, too.
Boggs led all players with 23 points; she was 7-of-12 from the floor and 9-of-11 from the stripe.
Kelliher, who played all but three minutes of the 40-minute game, drained six of seven free throws on the way to 15 points. Her line included one steal and three assists.
Abby Meredith and Kiersten Rose (nine rebounds) contributed seven and five points, respectively.
Avery Thomas, who started along with classmates Kelliher and Rose on Senior Day, Emma Robinson (eight rebounds) and Peyton Berger accounted for the balance of the Shore ladies’ scoring.
Ursinus (16-9, 10-5 CC) took its last lead at 12-10 on a pair of Charlotte Dilello free throws with 20 seconds remaining in the first frame.
Boggs’ layup with 7 second to go leveled the score at 12-all, and started her personal run of six unanswered points that bridged the first and second quarters.
Fourteen seconds into the second quarter, Boggs blocked an Ursinus shot, grabbed the defensive rebound and on a jump shot restored the Shore ladies’ lead for good.
Boggs scored again on Washington’s next possession to make it 16-12 with 8 minutes, 42 seconds remaining in the half.
Washington would stretch its lead to as many as nine points in the third quarter, 36-27, on Boggs’ and-one with just under a minute remaining in the frame.
The locals took their largest lead at 50-40 with 2:03 to play.
****
For the second year in a row, Johns Hopkins claimed the Centennial Conference tournament’s top seed over Gettysburg via a coin flip.
In a preseason poll of the Centennial head coaches, JHU was picked to finish first.
Gettysburg is the three-time defending conference champ.
All six playoff spots already were locked up entering Saturday’s final day of the regular season, but Ursinus (No. 3) was the lone team that was entrenched into a seed entering the day.
Hopkins (21-3, 13-1 CC) and Gettysburg (23-2, 13-1 CC) both cruised to double-digit home wins on Saturday to remain deadlocked atop the conference standings. The Bullets and Blue Jays split their regular season head-to-head matchups and defeated all other conference opponents, leaving the tiebreaker up to a coin flip.
Hopkins won the coin toss to nab the No. 1 seed, leaving Gettysburg as the No. 2 seed. Both teams will host semifinal matchups on Friday night.
Needing a win to secure a home game in the first round, Washington defeated Ursinus to clinch the No. 4 seed.
Despite the loss, Ursinus was locked into the third seed and will host No. 6 Dickinson (13-12, 7-7 CC) in Tuesday’s other first-round game.
McDaniel defeated Muhlenberg, 77-51, to clinch the No. 5 seed, while Dickinson fell at Johns Hopkins in its regular-season finale.
This will mark the third season in which the Centennial has used a six-team format for the conference tournament.
The higher seeds will host each round.
The champion will earn the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.