This past Wednesday the Hopkins women's basketball team took on Centennial Conference opponent McDaniel. Despite a strong game from senior forward Alex Vassila, the Blue Jays fell to the Green Terror by a score of 57-50. Vassila led the way with 18 points and nine rebounds on the night. McDaniel took the lead 47-44 with five minutes left in the fourth quarter and never looked back. Hopkins rallied late to bring it within one point at 51-50 with a 1:03 left, but missed their final three shots of the game as their comeback fell short.
At the half the Jays led the way with a 31-22 lead while shooting an impressive 46 percent clip. But after the break, McDaniel’s Steph Perez went off for 13 second half points and her teammate Rachael Rybak put up 22, shooting 50 percent. McDaniel steered clear of the paint to avoid Alex Vassila’s block party down low and settled for shooting from beyond the arc.
Freshman Katie Clark added seven points of her own for the Blue Jays, while Fatu Conteh had six points and eight rebounds.
On Saturday the Blue Jays took on the Ursinus College Golden Bears and with a 69-65 victory improved their record to 14-9 while clinching a playoff spot in the Centennial Conference playoffs. Freshman Liz Tommasi led the way with a career high 24 points. Senior stud Alex Vassila added to the win with a double-double recording 21 points and 10 boards on the night. It was the second 20-point game of the season for both Tommasi and Vassila.
Down by four late in the fourth quarter, the Blue Jays went on an 8-0 run to take a 63-59 with a little under two minutes remaining. Ursinus pulled within one but Stacy Fairey splashed two free throws to keep the lead at three.
Fatu Conteh stole the next Bears’ play and was fouled for a trip to the charity stripe. Missing the first of her one-and-one, Vassila grabbed the offensive board and put it home to put the lead at Jays' lead at five. After two missed threes by Ursinus, Liz Tommasi iced the game by hitting two free throws.
Alex Vassila was the story of the week as she had three swats against Ursinus to give her 200 career blocks, the first ever Blue Jay to reach this milestone. She was also named the Centennial Conference Player of the Week for the second time this season.
Averaging 19.5 points a game along with 9.5 rebounds a game, Vassila is the only player in school history to record 900 points, 800 rebounds, and 200 blocks. She is now 13 points shy of being the 14th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.
Hopkins closes out the regular season Wednesday at Franklin & Marshall. The Jays currently sit in fourth place but could close out the year anywhere between third and fifth.
