Women's Basketball Earns ECAC Southern Region Bid; To Host Hopkins on February 27th

by Sports Information
2/25/02

Lancaster, PA -- The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) has announced that the Franklin & Marshall College women's basketball team has earned an ECAC Southern Region Championship bid.

F&M (18-6, 11-4 Centennial Conference), the number four seed, will square off with a familiar rival, Centennial Conference opponent Johns Hopkins (19-7, 10-4 Centennial Conference), the number five seed, at 7:00 p.m. in the Mayser Center on Wednesday, February 27th.

Admission for fans will be $2, while students of the participating institutions will get in free with presentation of a valid student identification card.

To date, F&M, the 2002 Centennial Conference Western Division Champions, have been led by the play of seniors Amy Kreitz (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) and Lauren Howanski (Gap, PA/Pequea Valley), and the inside work of center Amy Abernathy (So., Far Hills, NJ/American School Paris).

Kreitz, who leads the Diplomats and ranked second in the Centennial Conference during the regular season with an 18.9 scoring average, is third in the CC in steals (3.08), eighth in three-point percentage (30.4), 11th in free-throw percentage (65.9) and 15th in assist/turnover ratio (0.85).

The 2001 CC Player of the Year and the fourth ranked scorer in F&M history, she is currently fourth on the all-time Centennial Conference scoring list with 1,592 points. She surpassed Dickinson's Kim Selemba '01 (1,575) with 18 points in a 61-56 CC semi-finals loss to Swarthmore on February 20th in the Mayser Center to move within the top five.

The Centennial Conference all-time steals leader with 269, she is tied with Howanski for 13th on the CC three-point field goals list with 103.

A 2002 All-CC second team all-star, Howanksi leads the CC in assists (4.58), and ranks third in three-point field goal percentage (36.4), fourth in free-throw percentage (74.5), seventh in three-point field goals (1.50), eighth in assist/turnover ratio (1.03) and 19th in scoring (10.9).

For her career, she now has 1,159 points to rank ninth all-time in the history of women's basketball at Franklin & Marshall College. In assists, her 254 scoring passes rank fourth at the College, as she tallied 13 against Swarthmore to supplant Mika Lugue '97 for fourth place. Further, she ranks second all-time in three-point accuracy, draining 35.6 percent of her attempts.

A key to the tournament for the Diplomats will be the play of All-CC second team center Abernathy.

The Conference leader in blocked shots (2.50) and rebounding (12.5), she is fifth in the CC in scoring (15.6) and third in field goal percentage (53.7).

Through 49 games, she is ranked fifth all-time at F&M in blocked shots with 99, including 60 swats in 2001-02, 13 short of moving past Jen Gibbon '99 (111) for fourth place.

Offensively, she has accumulated 628 points and 521 rebounds as she is on pace to become only the third player in F&M women's basketball history to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. Historically, Anne Krumrine '90 (1,811 points/1,180 rebounds), the all-time leader in both categories, and Tina Breithaupt '94 (1,293 points/1,108 rebounds) are the only other Diplomats' to accomplish the feat.

As a team, F&M has been on a roll in 2002 as the Diplomats reeled off 15 straight wins from December 8, 2001 until a 62-42 loss at Johns Hopkins on February 16.

In other competition, #3 seed Swarthmore (20-7, 13-3 CC) will host #6 seed Delaware Valley College (16-11) at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. On Saturday, the winner of the F&M-Hopkins game will play #1 seed Lebanon Valley (23-4) at 1:00 p.m., while the winner of Swarthmore-Delaware Valley will face #2 seed DeSales (19-7) at 4:00 p.m. also at LVC. The championship game will take place at noon on Sunday, March 3, at Lebanon Valley.

QUARTERFINALS - Wednesday, February 27
No. 6 Delaware Valley at No. 3 Swarthmore - 7:00 p.m.
No. 5 Johns Hopkins at No. 4 F&M - 7:00 p.m.

SEMIFINALS - Saturday, March 2, at Lebanon Valley College
No. 1 Lebanon Valley vs. No. 4/No. 5 winner - 1:00 p.m.
No. 2 DeSales vs. No. 3/No. 6 winner - 4:00 p.m.

CHAMPIONSHIP – Sunday, March 3, at Lebanon Valley College
Semifinal Winners - 12:00 p.m.