CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Rosa Drummond and Ellie Giles combined for 34 points in Smith College's 52-39 victory over host MIT in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball game on Saturday afternoon. Rachel Hunt paced the Engineers with 14 points and seven blocks to go along with six rebounds.

The Pioneers, who improved to 15-9 on the year and 12-6 in conference play, will continue action next week as the No. 3 seed in the NEWMAC Championship Tournament. MIT, meanwhile, concluded its season with an overall record of 8-16 and a 4-14 performance in the NEWMAC.

Courtesy of a Lauren Sascha Burton three-pointer, the Cardinal and Gray extended its margin to 8-4 at the 13:23 mark. Smith responded with a 17-4 run over the course of the next seven minutes to take the lead for good. Drummond registered 11 of her first-half 13 points during the stretch. MIT continued to attack, eventually closing the gap to six (25-19) on Hunt's layup 10 seconds before halftime.

Smith's advantage grew to double-digits (35-25) during the first five minutes of the second stanza. The Pioneers maintained their comfortable margin despite the Engineers' cutting their deficit to eight multiple times, the last at 41-33 with 7:29 left to play. A pair of free throws followed by a jumper from Giles helped the visitors close out the game with an 11-6 spurt.

Burton finished the game with nine points as Tamara Pena totaled eight points, four rebounds, and four steals. Anna Merrifield collected eight boards, three steals, and two blocks for the Engineers.

Drummond led all scorers with 18 points and added eight rebounds and two steals. Giles racked up 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds coming off the bench. Sydney Parkmond bolstered the rebounding corps with six caroms while Marissa Munoz-Ruiz and Libby Dutton dished out four and three assists, respectively. Lizzy BelBruno paced the Pioneers with four steals as Devon Quattrocchi snagged two of her own.

As a team, Smith recoded advantages in offensive rebounds (19-7), second-chance points (19-2), points off turnovers (23-10), and bench scoring (20-4), while both squads amassed 20 points in the paint. Although MIT had the upper-hand in field-goal percentage (40.5% - 31.6%), the Pioneers were 15-of-20 from the free-throw line while the Engineers were 2-of-6.