WORCESTER -- Adrianna Niles (Tewksbury, MA) and Ally McMorrow (Quincy, MA) combined for 15 first quarter points as the WPI women's basketball team made its 2023-24 home debut a successful with a 62-34 victory over Regis in a non-conference match-up on Tuesday evening. 

The Engineers improve to 2-1 on the young season while the visitors slip to 0-3 overall.

The Crimson and Gray started strong with a 12-0 run, forcing Regis six turnovers and four missed shots on the Pride's first 10 possessions en route to 21-4 first quarter advantage.  Regis gained momentum in the second quarter with an 8-2 opening run and trimmed the WPI advantage to 10 at the intermission after outscoring the hosts 17-10 in the stanza.  

Niles led the first half for WPI with 13 points and five rebounds, with McMorrow tacking on six points and another five boards. The Engineers shot 40% from inside the arc adding on one made shot from behind the arc. Jordyn Striggles (Raynham, MA) put up eight points and Jillian Perry (Melrose, MA) added three rebounds for Regis. The Pride completed 35% of field goals and 37.5% of attempts from behind the 3-point mark. 

WPI opened the second half with a 12-3 run putting the game out of reach.  The third quarter was punctuated by a buzzer-beating step around 3-pointer by Niles to make the score 52-28 headed to the fourth. 

For the Engineers, Niles registered her first career double-double with a game-high 17 points and a career-best 10 boards.  McMorrow and Emmy Allyn (Rutland, MA) netted 11 and 10 points respectively, while Alice Kelly (Wethersfield, CT) joined McMorrow with three steals.  Point guard Shannon Reno (Millbury, MA) chipped in with seven and was one of seven WPI players with an assist on the night. 

Striggles contributed 10 points for the Pride and Madi Zancan (Cumberland, RI) stuffed the state sheet with seven points, six rebounds, a game-best three blocks and a team-high three swipes.  Perry led the Regis bench with seven points. 

WPI held impressive advantages on the glass (50 to 32), points in the paint (34 to 10), second chance points (13 to 6) and points off turnovers (24 to 16). 

In the middle game of a three-game day week, WPI heads to UMass Boston on Thursday at 7pm before heading to Rivier Saturday at 2pm.  Regis ventures to Westfield to compete in the Westfield Gas and Electric Tip-off Tournament against the host Owls at 5:30pm on Friday. 

Recap by WPI Sports Student Assistant Maya Vartabedian '24