BABSON PARK, Mass.—Senior Kristen Ferola (Amherst, Mass.) scored a career-high 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds to help visiting Babson College defeat Wheaton Colege, 77-68, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball action on Wednesday night at Emerson Gymnasium.
With its seventh consecutive victory, Babson is now 15-5 overall and 11-1 in conference play, while Wheaton, which had won four straight, slips to 14-7 overall and 7-5 in the NEWMAC.
Ferola went 8-of-11 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the free throw line, while junior Giovanna Pickering (Hull, Mass.) contributed 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and three steals for the Beavers. Senior Linnett Graber (Roseland, N.J.) added 15 points and finished 6-of-8 from the floor in the win.
Sophomore Jill Bodreau (Quinebaug, Conn.) paced four Lyons in double figures with 13 points. The team's top two scorers, seniors Rebecca Arnone (Litchfield, N.H.) and Kiley Shoemaker (Fayetteville, N.Y.), were held to just 11 and 10 points, respectively, on 8-of-28 shooting.
The Green and White scored on six of its first 10 possessions to build an 11-6 lead at the midway point of the opening quarter, and got seven early points from Graber to take a 17-16 lead after one. Leading 26-25 late in the second quarter, Ferola converted a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound and Pickering followed with four straight points to give the Beavers their biggest lead of the first half at 32-25. Bodreau drilled the second of her three triples to bring Wheaton back within four at the break.
Babson pushed its lead to as many as eight early in the third quarter and then seized control of the game by scoring on 11 of its final 14 possessions to end the frame. Ferola scored 11 points in the stanza and the Beavers shot 7-of-12 from the floor and 11-of-14 at the free throw line while extending their lead to 57-44 in the closing seconds of the period.
The Lyons closed the gap to 57-48 on a three-pointer by sophomore Emily Cuthbertson (Hudson, N.H.) on their first possession of the fourth quarter, but the Green and White responded with a 10-0 run to grab a 67-49 advantage on a layup by Ferola with 5:15 to go. Four straight points from Graber gave Babson its biggest lead of the night at 71-52 with a little over four minutes remaining before Wheaton closed the game with a 16-6 run.
The Beavers shot 48.4 percent (31-of-64) from the floor and outscored the Lyons 46-40 in the paint. The Green and White also finished with a 37-36 edge on the glass and produced 19 points off of 23 Wheaton turnovers.
The Lyons shot 42.9 percent (28-of-63) overall, but were just 5-of-25 from beyond the arc.
Both teams return to the hardwood on Saturday as Babson visits Coast Guard at 1 p.m., while Wheaton travels to Wellesley at 2 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 41-16 all-time against Wheaton and have won 15 of the last 16 against the Lyons.
• Graber is now 14th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,030 points and moved into 15th place with 366 made field goals.
• Babson is now 11-0 this season and has won 13 straight games when scoring at least 60 points.
• Despite the loss, Wheaton is just the second team to shoot better than 40 percent against the Beavers this year.