WORCESTER, Mass.—Senior Taylor Russell (Braintree, Mass.) scored a career-high 26 points and visiting Babson College shot a season-best 56.2 percent on its way to defeating Clark University, 84-51, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at the Kneller Athletic Center.

With its fifth consecutive win, Babson is now 14-2 overall and 8-0 in league play, while Clark slips to 9-6 overall and 3-5 in the NEWMAC.

Russell scored 16 first-half points and finished 12-of-17 from the floor, while fellow senior Giovanna Pickering (Hull, Mass.) scored 12 points, dished out a career-high nine assists and added four steals for the Beavers. Classmate Jennifer Narlee (Medfield, Mass.) pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with five assists and four steals in the win.

Aretha Sullivan (Worcester, Mass.) scored 14 points and Sam O'Gara (Worcester, Mass.) came off the bench to score 13 for the Cougars.

The Green and White led by as many as nine in the first quarter and used a 9-0 spurt that included five points from Russell to open a 31-18 advantage with 5:34 to go in the second. Consecutive hoops by first-year Emily Bonifacic (Allendale, N.J.) and Russell extended the Beavers' lead to 37-21 with under three minutes to go in the stanza before Clark used a 7-1 run to pull within 38-28 at the half.

Babson scored on its first five possessions of the third quarter to make it 46-30 on a layup by junior Brenna LeGacy (Attleboro, Mass.) less than two minutes into the period. Three points from first-year Raven Brathwaite (Dorchester, Mass.), a hoop by Russell and four free throws by Pickering extended the lead to 55-33 with 2:40 to go in the frame.

The Cougars, who made just six second-half field goals while shooting 25 percent, got as close as 19 late in the third, but the Beavers outscored the hosts 22-10 over the final 10 minutes.

The Green and White outscored Clark 40-20 in the paint and scored 29 points off of turnovers in addition to finishing with a 38-33 edge on the glass. The Beavers also dished out a season-high 25 assists on their 32 made baskets.

The Cougars shot just 29.1 percent on the afternoon and committed 24 turnovers.

Babson returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts top-ranked Tufts at 7 p.m., while Clark takes on Newbury on Monday at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers, who have won 13 of their last 14 games against Clark, now hold a 24-22 edge in the all-time series.
•    With 12 points on Saturday, Pickering passed Beth Giovannini '98 for seventh place all-time with 1,270 points. She also passed both Meredith Hellen '05 and Nancy Langevin '92 and is now third on the program's all-time assist list with 327 dimes.
•    Babson has won 60 consecutive games when scoring at least 75 points going back to 2008.
•    The Beavers have now won their last 11 games when shooting better than 50 percent from the floor.