BALTIMORE, Md. – McDaniel jumped out to a 20-point advantage late in the first half and held on to defeat Johns Hopkins 66-63 in Centennial Conference (CC) women's basketball action on Wednesday.

Codi McMaster (Spring Grove, Pa./Spring Grove) led four players in double figures for the Green Terror (18-5, 13-4 CC) with 16 points. With the win, McDaniel has secured a first-round bye and remains in contention for hosting rights. With a win on Saturday and Haverford loss to Swarthmore, next weekend's tournament would be played in Westminster.

Liz Tommasi netted 19 points to pace the Blue Jays (16-7, 13-4 CC), who will need a win and losses by McDaniel and Haverford on Saturday to host the tournament.

A Karli Zeps (Reisterstown, Md./Seton Keough) recorded a putback layup just 22 seconds into the game and never trailed.

Tommasi countered with a fast-break layup with 17:30 showing before Steph Perez (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin East) canned a triple from the top of the key with 17:11 showing to tie the program's all-time career record with her 144th trey.

Ciara McCullagh closed the deficit to one before McDaniel notched 16 of the game's next 20 points to open up a 21-8 lead with 12:17 showing.

Emma Wingerd (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) stretched the lead to 30-12 with 7:27 showing before the Blue Jays reeled off seven straight points to close to within 11 with 4:08 remaining.

A Lindsey Nichols (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark's) 3-pointer keyed a 9-0 counter that pushed the lead to 20 with 1:38 to play but five points from Haley Bush keyed a 7-0 finish to the half.

Johns Hopkins extended that run into the second half, scoring eight of the first 10 points after the break to close to within 41-34 with 17:14 remaining.

Tommasi hit a layup to make it a 45-40 game three minutes later before a Nichols triple extended the lead back to 12 at 52-40 with 12:01 to play.

Johns Hopkins went on an 8-1 run over the next 3:05 to once again make it a five-point game.

A Tommasi 3-pointer trimmed the margin to 58-55 with 4:47 to play.

McDaniel extended the lead back to eight on a Brittney Davis (Laurel, Md./St. Vincent Pallotti) layup with 1:48 to play.

However with a 64-56 advantage, the Green Terror went just 2-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final two minutes.

After two missed free throws in a two-point game with 8.4 seconds to play, Nichols corralled the offensive rebound and hit the second of two free throws to make it a 66-63 game.

The Blue Jays had a look at a game-tying 3-pointer from the right wing but the shot bounced off the back of the rim to give McDaniel the victory and season sweep.

Nichols finished with 13 points while Wingerd added 13 points and nine rebounds. Davis added 12 points, four assists and four steals.

McDaniel concludes the regular season at home against Gettysburg on Saturday. Game time is 1 p.m.

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