WORCESTER -- Adrianna Niles (Tewksbury, MA) established a new a career-high 21 points and Alice Kelly (Wethersfield, CT) poured in a season-high 19 points to lift WPI women's basketball to a 70-52 victory over visiting Bridgewater State in the Engineers final non-conference contest of the season Monday evening inside Harrington Auditorium.
With the victory, the Engineers are now 8-6 overall while the Bears dip to 6-9 on the season.
The game was knotted 7-7 before the hosts cobbled together three straight possessions resulting in three points, including a conventional 3-point play by Niles and trifectas by Emmy Allyn (Rutland, MA) and Kelly to help propel the Engineers to a 21-11 edge after the opening 10 minutes. The Bears clawed their bay back into the contest by outscoring WPI 13-8 in the second quarter with Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, MA) tallying five of her nine first half points to bring Bridgewater State to within five at intermission at 29-24.
The Crimson and Gray came out of the locker room shooting strong, canning four of its first five shots from the field to open the third quarter on an 11-2 run, with six points coming from Ally McMorrow (Quincy, MA). The Bears again would not go away quietly, rattling off the final seven points of the stanza over the last 2:23 to get back to single digits at 48-39 after three quarters.
WPI closed the game in which it never trailed with a 22-point fourth quarter with Kelly and Allen netting six points each and Niles and McMorrow with five points apiece.
Niles previous career-high lasted for less than a week as the junior had tallied 19 points Tuesday evening versus Williams. Against Bridgewater State, Niles played all 40 minutes and connected on 4-of-5 3-pointers, grabbed nine rebounds and doled out three assists without committing a turnover on the night. Kelly drained 6-of-10 from the floor, including both of her attempts from downtown, was a rebound short of a double-double, handed out three assists and swiped a pair of steals. Allyn canned a trio of 3-pointers on her way to 12 points along with five assists, McMorrow finished with 11 points and point guard Shannon Reno (Millbury, MA) dished out four assists.
Grassi paced Bridgewater State with 13 points and now sits with 992 career points, just eight shy of becoming the 20th player in Bridgewater State women's basketball program history with 1,000 points. Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, MA) and Jordan Peebles (Middleboro, MA) both collected eight points and shared team-high rebounding honors with for the Bears with seven boards apiece. Caroline Tripp (Plymouth, MA) stuffed the stat sheet with six points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block.
WPI now towards its attention to NEWMAC play the rest of the way, opening conference action on Saturday on the road at 2 pm at nationally-ranked Smith. Bridgewater State returns home Wednesday for a 5:30pm MASCAC matchup with MCLA.