SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Junior Tea Spellacy (Belchertown, Mass.) scored a career-high 20 points as visiting Babson College defeated Springfield College, 55-48, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon inside Blake Arena.
With the win, Babson improves to 16-8 overall and takes over sole possession of first place in the league at 12-3. Springfield, which has dropped two straight games, falls to 17-7 overall and 11-4 in the NEWMAC.
Spellacy finished 5-of-8 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the free throw while scoring 15 of her 20 point in the first half. Junior Payton Ouimette (Medfield, Mass.) collected her 16th double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and classmate Katherine Tamulionis (Foxboro, Mass.) added seven points and two steals in the win.
Junior Gracie Retituyo (Barrington, R.I.) finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, while senior Heather King (Lebanon, N.H.) added 10 points and nine boards for the Pride.
Ouimette and Spellacy combined for 13 points in the opening stanza to help the Green and White built a 17-14 advantage. Spellacy scored seven of the first nine points to open the second quarter and Ouimette converted a steal and layup to extend the Babson lead to 28-20 less than four minutes into the frame.
Tamulionis and junior Elizabeth Lane (Skaneateles, N.Y.) followed a hoop by sophomore Jacqueline Jozefick (Milford, Conn.) with back-to-back three-pointers for a 36-20 advantage, the biggest of the game, with 3:05 to go in the half. Jozefick and Spellacy both added late buckets to keep the Beavers in front 40-27 going to the locker room.
After shooting 64 percent in the opening half, Babson was just 2-of-11 with six turnovers in the third quarter as Springfield used a 16-6 run to pull within 46-41 late in the stanza. The Green and White made just one field goal over the first 8:30 of the final period, a Ouimette layup at the 9:18, mark, but maintained its lead by holding the Pride to 3-of-16 shooting.
Springfield got as close as 49-48 on a bucket by King with 1:38 to go, but junior Bianca Tomassini (North Branford, Conn.) buried a three-pointer from the right wing on the ensuing possession to push the margin back to 52-48. Spellacy went 3-of-4 at the charity stripe over the final 57 seconds to help the Beavers close out the victory.
Babson returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts MIT in its regular season finale at 7 p.m., while Springfield travels to Wheaton next Saturday at 1 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 27-12 all-time against Springfield.
• Babson is 14-1 in NEWMAC road games over the last two seasons and has lost just once in its last 20 league road trips.
• The Beavers have now won at least 12 games in conference play in nine consecutive seasons going back to 2009-10.
• Spellacy's 20-point game marks just the third time a Babson player has gone over 20 points this season.