COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. — In a back-and-forth game with a playoff berth on the line Saturday at Ursinus, the Shore ladies turned to their senior captain and scoring leader Kaitlyn Boggs.
Washington’s 6-foot-2 center, arguably the best post player in the Centennial Conference, completed a traditional three-point play with less than a minute and a half to play for a 54-51 lead that would hold up.
WC defeated its host, 58-55, led by Boggs’ game high of 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 10-of-13 from the free-throw line. [Earlier this month, Boggs eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone; she now has 1,131 career points, fourth highest in program history.]
The locals won for the third game in a row and fifth of their last seven, all against conference opponents, to move to the plus side of .500 — 13-12 on the season and, more importantly, 8-7 in the Centennial to pin down the sixth and final seed in the CC tournament that begins tomorrow night.
Washington’s reward for such a strong finish?
A return trip to Collegeville, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, Feb. 24 for a rematch with No. 3 seed Ursinus (15-10, 9-6 CC).
Washington and Ursinus split the two-game series this season — each team winning on the road.
The Shore ladies under head coach Alisha Mosley are playoff bound for the fifth year in a row.
Saturday at Ursinus, where there were 10 lead changes and eight ties, was Senior Day for the Bears.
The largest lead for either team was five points, 15-10, when Ursinus junior Erin Glanz knocked down a trey with 9 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
By the midway point, however, Washington had pulled ahead, 24-21, after closing the half on a 7-2 run.
After three quarters, Ursinus was back out in front, 42-40, courtesy of a pair of Colleen Blackman 3-pointers in the final minute of the frame.
The Bears pushed their advantage to 49-45 with just under seven minutes remaining, before the Shore ladies scored six points in a row — capped by a Maggie Lawrence jumper — for a 51-49 lead with 3:45 on the clock.
Makenna Foder’s jump shot leveled the score at 51 with 2:44 to play.
Boggs’ and-one restored Washington’s lead for good, 54-51, at the 1:23 mark.
The Shore ladies sealed the win with a Boggs lay-in and two free throws from senior Abby Meredith in the final 15 seconds.
In addition to her 24 points, Boggs totaled nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Meredith contributed 12 points.
Senior Emma Robinson, who played all but one minute of the 40-minute game, led all players with 12 rebounds.
Robinson and junior Peyton Berger netted eight and seven points, respectively, to finish out the scoring for Washington’s starters.
Senior Ava Possenti led Ursinus with 15 points, eight rebounds and four steals; she established a school record of 120 steals in a season.
Also for the Bears, senior Madison Smith totaled 10 points and five rebounds and senior Foder’s line included seven assists and eight rebounds.
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Johns Hopkins completed just the third perfect conference regular season in Centennial history, clinching the top seed in this week’s conference tournament for the fourth straight season. The unbeaten Blue Jays (24-0, 14-0 CC) closed out the regular season with a 71-54 victory at Dickinson, earning a first-round bye and home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The previous two unblemished CC regular-season marks came from Hopkins in 1997 (14-0) and Muhlenberg in 2009 (18-0).
Gettysburg (19-6, 12-2 CC) is the No. 2 seed for the fourth straight season, downing Bryn Mawr 66-29 in Saturday’s finale. Gettysburg also receives a first-round bye and home game in the tournament semifinals on Friday.
Five of the six playoff spots were secured heading into Saturday’s final day of the regular season, with the final spot coming down to the Washington at Ursinus game. Washington needed a win to clinch the sixth and final berth, knocking out Franklin & Marshall (14-11, 7-7 CC).
Despite the loss, Ursinus earned the No. 3 seed and will host Washington on Tuesday. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.
Tuesday’s other first-round matchup will feature No. 4 seed Dickinson (14-11, 8-6 CC) at home against No. 5 seed McDaniel (19-6, 8-6 CC). Tied in the conference standings with a split head-to-head record, the tiebreaker for seeding came down to Dickinson winning its regular-season matchup against Washington, while McDaniel was defeated by Washington.
This is the second straight year that these six teams qualified for the postseason, and the fourth season in which the Centennial has used a six-team format for the conference tournament.
The higher seeds will host each round of the tournament, culminating with the championship game on Sunday, March 1.
The tournament winner will earn the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
