WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Sophomore Ashleigh Sargent scored a career-high 18 points to lead the Wellesley College basketball team to a 61-44 victory over Connecticut College on Sunday afternoon.  The game was the home opener for the Blue, who improve to 3-1 on the season.  The Camels even their record to 2-2.

Sargent scored 12 of her 18 points in the second half and also added six rebounds and four steals. Classmate Malia Maier finished the day with 15 points and seven rebounds, while first-year Leslie Leong notched her first career double-double with 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.  Also for Wellesley, Kimball had an 11-point effort with seven rebounds and six assists, while Elisha Orama finished with six points, hitting two clutch three-pointers.

Connecticut College was led by Jennifer Shinall who tallied a game-high 21 points, with three assists.  Tori Verrengia rounded out the Camels offense with eight points, while Caitlin Cimino dished out a team-high four assists.

The first half was tightly contested with neither team leading by more than five points.  Wellesley held an 11-6 edge at the 15-minute mark, but  two minutes later the Camels battled back to take a 15-11 lead on back-to-back threes from Verrengia and Shinall.  After three more lead changes, Wellelsey ended the period on top, taking a slim 26-25 advantage into halftime.

The Blue opened the second half with four straight points from Sargent, as the home team took a five-point lead at 30-25. However, sharp-shooting from Connecticut's Verrengia turned a five-point deficit into a two-point lead as the Camels went ahead 34-32 with 12 to play in the game.  From that point on though, Wellesley took control, ending the game with a 29-10 run to seal the 61-44 victory.

Wellesley is back in action at home on Tuesday evening. The Blue open their 2010-11 NEWMAC slate with a 7:00pm match-up against Clark University.  Connecticut College continues its non-conference schedule on Tuesday, traveling to Western Connecticut State University for a 6:00pm game.