BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior Payton Ouimette (Medfield, Mass.) scored 16 points and matched her career high with 16 rebounds as Babson College defeated visiting Wheaton College, 77-56, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball action on Wednesday night at Staake Gymnasium.
With the win, Babson improves to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play, while Wheaton slips to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the NEWMAC.
Junior Tea Spellacy (Belchertown, Mass.) scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while classmate Katherine Tamulionis (Foxboro, Mass.) matched her career high with 14 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists for the Beavers. Fellow junior Elizabeth Lane (Skaneateles, N.Y.) finished with 11 points and sophomore Emily Bonifacic(Allendale, N.J.) pulled down 10 rebounds in the victory.
Sophomore Natalie Wind (New Canaan, Conn.) scored 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range, while senior Emily Cuthbertson (Hudson, N.H.) added 12 points and five rebounds to lead the Lyons.
The Green and White led for all but the contest's opening possession and broke the game open with a 17-0 run that spanned the final two minutes of the third quarter and the opening two minutes of the fourth. Tamulionis made four straight free throws to extended a seven-point lead to 55-44 with 1:26 to go in the third, and Spellacy beat the buzzer with a three-pointer from the right wing to give the Beavers a 59-44 edge going to the fourth.
Babson scored on each of its first five possessions of the final frame, pushing its lead to 68-44 on a free throw by Ouimette with 8:08 to go in the contest. A three-pointer by first-year Shaye Galletta (Riverside, Conn.) gave the Green and White its biggest margin of the night at 75-49 with 3:24 remaining.
The Beavers shot 50 percent in the opening stanza and led by as many as eight before settling for a 21-17 lead after 10 minutes. First-year Katie Jones (Ridgewood, N.J.) gave Babson a 35-25 advantage, its biggest of the half, with a three-pointer at the 2:37 mark of the second quarter before Wheaton used a 7-2 spurt to pull within 37-32 at the break.
The Beavers shot 40 percent from the floor, outscored the Lyons 34-8 in the paint and finished with a 55-26 edge on the glass.
Wheaton shot just 29.8 percent overall, but went 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) from distance and connected on 11-of-12 free throws.
Both teams return to action on Saturday at 1 p.m. as Babson visits Clark, while Wheaton hosts Pine Manor.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 44-16 all-time against Wheaton and have won 18 of the last 19 games between the teams.
• Babson has won its NEWMAC opener in 13 of the last 14 years going back to 2005.
• The Green and White is 3-0 this year and 24-2 since the start of last season when leading after the first quarter.
• Babson has now won 67 straight games when scoring 75 or more points going back to 2008.