WORCESTER -- In a battle for the number two seed in the upcoming NEWMAC Tournament, it was #17 Babson that came away with the victory, topping WPI 86-60, in women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at Harrington Auditorium. The win improves the Beavers to 21-4 overall, 8-2 in conference play, while WPI falls to 17-6, 7-3.

Entering the weekend in a three-way tie with WPI and MIT for second, Babson will take the number two seed and will host seventh-seeded Wheaton on Wednesday at 7pm. WPI earns the number four seed and will square off against fifth-seeded Springfield at home in their NEWMAC Quarterfinal, also on Wednesday at 7pm.

Prior to the game WPI honored its lone senior Emily Raynowska (Brentwood, NH) and recognized graduate students Lisa Cristiano (Valhalla, NY), McKenna Finken (Simsbury, CT), Victoria Mirecki (Washingtonville, NY) Melanie Presseau (Manchester, NH) and Alex Scariati (Scotch Plains, NJ).  Presseau was also lauded for becoming the program's all-time 3-pointer leader in a win last week at Coast Guard. 

Both teams shot over 50%, with Babson going 60% (33-55) from the field and 58.8% (10-17) from three. The Engineers finished 51% (26-51) from the field but made only 35.7% (5-14) from long range. Babson forced 17 WPI turnovers in the game and also won the rebounding battle, 29-21. 

Individually, Babson's Madison Odam (San Jose, CA) led all players with 23 points, going 7-for-8 from the field and 4-for-4 from three, while also adding six rebounds. Megan Bauman (East Lyme, CT) had 19 points and seven assists, while Samantha Smith (Greenfield, MA) added 17 points, with each adding four rebounds. Kelly Walsh (Goffstown, NH) rounded out the high-octane Babson offense with 16 points, also collecting a game-high seven rebounds. 

For WPI, Cristiano and Alice Kelly (Wethersfield, CT) each tallied 11 points, Finken had 10 and Presseau added eight. Scariati had eight assists and seven points with Allison McMorrow (Quincy, MA) also adding seven points. Raynowska finished with six points and a team-high five rebounds. 

Babson opened the first quarter on a tear, rattling off 11 unanswered points in the first four minutes of action. WPI finally dented the scoreboard with a pair of Kelly free throws and scored six of the next eight points to cut the lead to 14-6. It was all Babson over the final four minutes however, as the Beavers used an 18-4 run to mount a 22-point advantage after one. 

The teams traded scores over the first three minutes of the second quarter, until a Chloe Perrault (Danbury, CT) jumper gave Babson its largest lead of the game at 38-14. Five straight points from Scariati then sparked an extended WPI run that saw the Engineers cut the gap to 13 (38-25) with 3:33 to play. The Beavers pushed the lead back to 16, but a layup from Raynowska with 17 seconds left got the lead back down to 47-34 where it stood at halftime. 

Finken had the first two buckets of the third quarter for WPI as the Engineers closed the gap to 11 points with 8:32 on the clock. Babson responded with another extended run, using the next four and a half minutes to push their advantage back to 19 points, as both Walsh and Odam connected for threes to make it 67-48. A Finken layup brought the lead down to 17, but a pair of Bauman free throws kept the Babson lead at 19 after three quarters. 

A Raynowska jumper got the WPI deficit down to 16 points early in the fourth quarter, but one more run from Babson put the game away. The Beavers scored eight unanswered points over the next three minutes, pushing the advantage to 24.