ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- The end of the latest NCAA tournament run for the Johns Hopkins women's basketball team might have been the least surprising of its past five. Yesterday's 77-53 loss at No. 2 seed Elizabethtown in the second round of the Division III playoffs finished a season in which third-seeded Hopkins achieved more than most had thought possible.

That takes the sting off 27 turnovers and a second half that saw Elizabethtown's Blue Jays (25-3) outscore the Hopkins variety 46-27. Carmen Chiles, who scored 15 of her game-high 22 points over the final 16 minutes, paced the victory.

"For us, the achievements of this team are just outstanding," Johns Hopkins coach Nancy Blank said. "I think of any of my 22 years in coaching, this is one of my favorites."

With the legacy of four straight NCAA appearances and the last two Elite Eights to live down, this year's Hopkins team (23-5) would have to do so without forward Julie Anderson and guard Angie Arnold. When Anderson and Arnold left, they took nearly 34 points per game with them.

But no matter, Hopkins barged forward anyway, winning 13 of 14 games, including the Centennial Conference finals, establishing a new inside-outside combination in Marjahna Segers and Leslie Ritter, and giving Blank yet another trip to the NCAAs.

"People can say that we got beat by 20," Segers said after leading Hopkins with 11 points and 17 rebounds, 12 in the first half. "But we weren't even supposed to be here. We weren't supposed to win the Centennial, or make the NCAAs, let alone win a game in the NCAAs."

At one point, it seemed that Hopkins would move on, as Segers scored four of the points during a 12-0 run that put Hopkins up 14-6 with 14: 46 left in the first half. But Hopkins' good fortune wouldn't last, as it couldn't (a) shoot, with a 33.3 percent mark from the field in the first half; or (b) get to the line, as evidenced by four free-throw attempts, compared to Elizabethtown's 15.

Senior forward Kim Boback scored all seven of her first-half points during a 16-6 run, including a jumper at the 5: 43 mark that tied the game, 22-22. Elizabethtown then scored its next five points on free throws, going up 27-22, on the way to a 31-26 halftime lead despite getting killed on the boards, 27-14.

"We said we're up by five because we got the fouls called," Elizabethtown coach Yvonne Kauffman said. "We knew that Hopkins had at least four second shots that went in, and I said if we had those offensive boards, we'd be up by 13. I said we've just got to get the boards."

The second-half rebounding totals -- Elizabethtown 19, Johns Hopkins 18 -- showed that Kauffman's words were heeded. This was important, especially as Hopkins' already cold shooting got worse, leading to 28-percent accuracy after halftime.

Often settling for longer shots (1-for-12 from three-point range in the second half; 4-for-26 overall), JHU paid dearly as Elizabethtown exhibited more diligent rebounding and shot the ball at a 50-percent clip because inside shots that missed in the first half went down in the second.

"We hadn't played in a week, and we weren't used to that," Boback (13 points, six rebounds) said of the team's start. "We just kept working on what we were doing on offense, and our shots just started to drop."

Two free throws by Boback with 13: 38 remaining gave Elizabethtown a 46-35 lead, the largest to the game up to that point. Later, the lead would grow to 20 points on a fadeaway by Chiles that made the score 63-43 with 6: 27 left.

"You can't just say there was one moment where things were starting to slip," Segers said. "I just looked up and they were really ahead of us."

Pub Date: 3/07/99