WELLESLEY, Mass.—Senior Erin Young (Westwood, Mass.) made five of her first six shots and scored a season-high 16 points, helping visiting Babson College defeat Wellesley College, 71-49, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball action on Wednesday night at the Dorothy Towne Fieldhouse.
With its ninth consecutive victory, Babson is now 15-5 overall and 11-1 in conference play, while Wellesley drops to 6-14 overall and 3-9 in the NEWMAC.
Junior Kristen Ferola (Amherst, Mass.) finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists, while sophomore Giovanna Pickering (Hull, Mass.) added 13 points, four assists and four steals for the Beavers. Classmate Jennifer Narlee (Medfield, Mass.) pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, and junior Linnett Graber (Roseland, N.J.) chipped in with six points, six boards and three blocked shots in the win.
Senior Morgyne Weaver (Oklahoma City, Okla.) led the Blue with 16 points and six rebounds. Junior Chelsi Scott (Portland, Mich.) contributed 10 points, including a 6-of-8 effort at the free throw line, to go along with eight rebounds.
The Green and White led 6-5 just over three and a half minutes into the contest before Young buried a trio of three-pointers over the next five possessions to stretch the advantage to 16-7. First-year Brenna LeGacy (Attleboro, Mass.) and Graber each finished layups to push the Beavers' lead to 13 just past the midway point of the opening stanza, and back-to-back hoops by Pickering made it 24-7 with 7:52 left in the half.
Wellesley, which missed 15 of its first 18 shots, cut its deficit down to 15 on three occasions, but Ferola knocked down consecutive treys to help the Beavers take a 39-19 lead into the locker room at halftime. Babson, which shot 55.2 percent over the opening 20 minutes, scored 12 points off turnovers in the period.
Graber scored on the opening possession of the second half to give the Beavers a 22-point lead, but the Blue, which made eight of its first 14 shots to open the half, pulled within 53-38 on back-to-back hoops by first-year Kayla Jang (South Pasadena, Calif.) and sophomore Ailis Hanley (Cranston, R.I.) with 9:08 to play. Babson responded with a 16-5 run, and held Wellesley to just 1-of-12 shooting over the final nine minutes to put the game away.
Two free throws from Graber, followed by a jumper from Ferola and a layup by junior Megan Otto (Scituate, Mass.) made it 59-38 at the 7:11 mark. The Green and White then scored on five of its next seven possessions, including four free throws from senior Lindsey Roche (Arlington, Mass.), to grab its biggest lead of the game at 69-46 on a layup by Ferola with 3:04 remaining.
Babson shot 42.9 percent (27-of-63) from the floor and finished 8-of-17 from beyond the arc. The Beavers also held a 28-24 edge in paint scoring, and turned 16 Wellesley turnovers into 22 points.
The Blue shot just 32.1 percent (18-of-56), including a 2-of-10 effort from three-point range.
Babson returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Coast Guard at 1 p.m., while Wellesley travels to Clark next Wednesday at 5 p.m.
GAME NOTES: Babson is now 46-15 all-time against Wellesley, and has won 16 of the last 18 meetings between the two teams going back to 2008…the Beavers have shot at least 40 percent in each of their last five games…Babson has now won 40 of its last 42 games in the month of February…the Beavers have won four straight games on the road going back to January 3…Babson is 11-0 on the year when scoring 70 points or more…the Beavers are now 11-1 when holding their opponents to 39 percent shooting or less.