February 24, 2001

Swarthmore (22-4) defeated Johns Hopkins (17-9), 63-53 to win its first-ever Centennial Conference Women's Basketball Championship. The victory gives the Garnet an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

It was an inside-out effort that paced Swarthmore. In the first half the Garnet went inside, using junior forward Heather Kile and in the second half it was sophomore guard Ali Furman from the outside. Kile posted 13 of her game-high 22 points in the first half as the Garnet took a 24-23 advantage into the locker room. In the second frame it was Furman's outside bombing that sparked the Garnet. Furman broke open a 28-28 tie hitting five consecutive three pointers to give the Garnet a 45-37 advantage that brought the 1,014 in attendance to its feet. Furman matched her career-high with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from behind the arc, equaling a Centennial playoff record for three's in a game.

Sophomore center Sarah Tufano posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and freshman guard Katie Robinson added 11 rebounds and six steals. Senior foreard Molly Malloy paced the Blue Jays with 15 points and nine rebounds while sophomore guard Lauren Martin added 11 points.

The NCAA bracket will be announced Sunday at 9:30 pm.