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LANCASTER, PA - The Franklin & Marshall College women's basketball broke into the national 25 this week as the Diplomats are tied for 25th in this week's USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Top 25.
It marks F&M's first Top 25 appearance this year as the #1 Western Division seeded Diplomats will face Swarthmore College at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20 in the Mayser Center in a Centennial Conference semi-final.
F&M is one of two Centennial Conference teams ranked in the national poll as Muhlenberg College is picked 14th.
Franklin & Marshall, which clinched the #1 seed with a 77-55 win at Dickinson College last week, will be looking for some revenge when the Garnet return to Lancaster
Last year, Swarthmore knocked the Diplomats out of the CC title hunt with a 67-55 playoff win on Philadelphia's Main Line behind 29 points and 21 rebounds from 2000 CC Player of the Year Heather Kile.
This year, Swarthmore comes to Amish Country as the East's #2 seed for the second time in less than three weeks looking to upset the Diplomats. In their last meeting, F&M dropped the Garnet 62-44 in the Mayser Center while holding Kile to nine points. In addition, Swarthmore was without 2002 CC Player of the Year Katie Robinson, who leads the Conference in scoring with 18.9 points per game.
F&M, which finished the regular season 18-5, 11-3 in Centennial Conference play, has been led by the trio of senior guards Amy Kreitz (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) and Lauren Howanski (Gap, PA/Pequea Valley) and center Amy Abernathy (So., Far Hills, NJ/American School-Paris).
Versus Johns Hopkins in a 62-42 loss, Kreitz finished with 18 points to raise her career total to 1,574, 92 points shy of catching Cathy Belser '90 for third on the all-time scoring list at the College. A 2002 All-CC first team guard, she ranks second in scoring with an 18.9 average was a first team selection in the backcourt. A four-time All-CC recipient following an honorable mention nod as a freshman, she becomes the fifth player to earn first-team All-Conference honors three times as she was named to the CC top squad in 2000 and 1999. The 2001 Centennial Conference Player of the Year, she is third in the CC in steals (3.13), sixth in three-point percentage (32.0), 12th in free-throw percentage (65.3) and 13th in assist/turnover ratio (0.90). Kreitz led her Diplomats to the West Division title while shooting 45.1 percent from the field, 32 percent from beyond the three-point arch. The fourth ranked scorer in F&M history, she is currently tied for fifth on the all-time Centennial Conference scoring list with 1,574 points and needs just two more points to ascend to the No. 4 position, surpassing Dickinson's Kim Selemba '01 (1,575). The Centennial Conference all-time steals leader with 267, her total ranks second at the College behind 345 registered by Michele Fisher '89. Kreitz is tied with Howanski for 13th on the CC list for 3-point field goals with 103, the third highest total in F&M women's basketball history. A 2001 All-CC first team recipient, Howanksi became a four-time All-Centennial honoree on Monday as she was named to the second team following honorable mention nods in 1999 and 2000. The Conference leader in three-point field goal percentage (38.3), she is second in assists (4.22), fifth in free-throw percentage (74.2), seventh in three-point field goals (1.5&), 11th in assist/turnover ratio (0.95) and 19th in scoring (10.9). For her career, she now has 1,149 points to rank ninth all-time in the history of women's basketball at Franklin & Marshall College. In assists, her 241 scoring passes rank fifth at the College, just 10 short of surpassing Mika Lugue '97 for fourth place. Joining Howanski on the second team is Abernathy, the Conference leader in blocked shots (2.57) and rebounding (12.2). Ranked third in the CC in scoring (15.7) and field goal percentage (53.5), she is fifth all-time at F&M in blocked shots with 98, including 59 swats in 2001-02, 14 short of moving past Jen Gibbon '99 (111) for fourth place. F&M should have more than the home court advantage on their side, as history and streaks could play a major role in the outcomes of the semi-finals and title game. Historically, in the eight years on the Centennial Conference women's basketball championship, the home team has never lost a semifinal contest (16-0). In fact, the closest game among the 16 was a four-point overtime victory by Ursinus over Gettysburg in 1995. Seven of the games have been decided by more than 20 points, while four have been won by 30+ points. In six of the eight games, the home team in the final has won the championship, including last season's 63-53 win by Swarthmore over Johns Hopkins. The exceptions are 1998 and 1999 when Muhlenberg and Johns Hopkins took turns winning on the other's court. The closest games have been a pair of two-point decisions, as Dickinson edged Ursinus, 78-76, in 1994 and Muhlenberg needed overtime to defeat Johns Hopkins, 73-71, in 1997. Further, in the eight Centennial tournaments, the No.1 seed from the West Division has won the championship in even-numbered years three of four times (1994-96-00), while the No. 1 seed from the East Division has won in three of the four odd-numbered years (1995-97-01). History could also be the undoing of both teams as only twice in eight seasons as the Conference's leading scorer or rebounder led her team to the championship. In 1995, Ursinus' Ellen Cosgrove averaged 23.2 points and led her Bears to wins over Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins for Ursinus' only CC title. In 1996, Johns Hopkins sophomore Julie Anderson led the Conference with a 14.2 per game rebounding average and helped her Blue Jays to victories over Ursinus and Muhlenberg for the first of Hopkins' three titles. In 2002, F&M's Abernathy led the conference in rebounding, while Swarthmore's Robinson was the leading scorer. East #1 Muhlenberg hosts either Western Maryland in the other semi-final, following a 70-68 win by the Green Terror over Johns Hopkins in a play-in game for the West's #2 seed on Monday. The winners of the semi-finals will meet Saturday at a campus to be determined. If the Diplomats defeat Swarthmore, the title game will be in Lancaster. Otherwise, the championship tilt will be held at the winner of the JHU/WMC-Muhlenberg game.
89.1 WFNM, the Franklin & Marshall College radio station, will carry both games of F&M's playoff basketball double-header live over the radio and via Internet broadcast at wfnm.fandm.edu. The women's broadcast will begin at 5:45, with the men's pre-game show will begin immediately following the women's broadcast. USA TODAY/ESPN/WBCA TOP 25 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL POLL
1. Washington (U) 24-0
2. Eastern Connecticut 24-1
3. Bowdoin 22-1
Wilmington 21-1
5. Hardin Simmons 23-1
6. Southern Maine 23-2
7. Wisconsin-Stevens Point 23-2
8. Kings 23-2
DePauw 21-2
10. Emmanuel 22-2
11. Hope 22-2
Saint Benedict 21-3
13. Wisconsin-Stout 18-4
14. Muhlenberg 19-3
15. Messiah 20-3
16. Case Western Reserve 18-5
17. Pacific Lutheran 20-3
18. Webster 21-2
19. St. Thomas 20-4
20. Scranton 21-4
21. St. Lawrence 22-3
22. Springfield 21-3
23. Lebanon Valley 22-3
24. George Fox 20-4
25. Franklin & Marshall 18-4
Capital 18-6
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