Wheaton 60, WPI 44
Box
Score
Worcester, MA --- The Wheaton College women's basketball
team took over sole possession of first place with a 60-44 New
England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC)
victory over WPI at Harrington Auditorium on Saturday afternoon.
The Lyons , now lead Coast Guard, who dropped a 70-56 decision at
Babson, by one game with two conference contests remaining
Winners of two straight, Wheaton owns a 17-6 (10-1 NEWMAC mark).
WPI, which had its four-game win streak snapped, drops to 12-9
overall and 7-4 in league play.
Junior Bri Smith (Westford, MA) led Wheaton with
11 points, four assists and three steals. Senior Becky
Aitchison (Norwalk, CT) topped the squad with 10 rebounds
and five steals.
Freshman Elle Fontaine (Franklin, MA) had 11
points and seven boards to pace WPI. Junior Natasha
Deschene (Presque Isle, ME) and sophomore Kaileen
Selen (Worcester, MA) both chipped in with nine points
each. Deschene also had a team-high eight rebounds.
WPI raced out to a 10-2 lead on Serena
Dubois' (Bangor, ME) lay-in underneath at the 14:30
mark of the first half. The Engineers held Wheaton without a field
goal until Aitchison converted on a lay-up to trail by six (10-4)
6:50 into the contest. After the host team took its largest margin
of the half (12-4) on Deschene's pair at the line, Wheaton
erupted for a 13-4 run to take its first lead (17-14) with 7:56
remaining. The scoring stretch was highlighted by six points from
Callie Schneider (Nashua , NH).
The Engineers worked to tie the score twice on Fontaine's
three-ball (17-17) and a bucket from Selen (21-21) over the next
3:01, but Wheaton scored eight of the final 10 points to take a
29-24 lead at the half.
Neither team took care of the ball in the opening stanza as WPI
committed 15 turnovers to the Lyons ' 10. However, Wheaton
parlayed the Engineers' possession loss to 17 points.
Wheaton opened the second half on an 18-7 burst to extend its
margin to 16 (47-31) on a hoop by Aitchison at 10:46. WPI chipped
away at the lead with a 9-3 run of their own capped by Kate
Maki's (Fitchburg, MA) midrange jumper to close the
gap to within 10 (40-50) with 5:51 left to play. The Lyons then put
the game away with solid defense, holding WPI scoreless twice
– first over a 1:42 span and again over 2:55 stretch.
Both teams return to action on with NEWMAC games on Wednesday. WPI
heads to Babson for a 7:30pm contest with the Beavers while Wheaton
entertains MIT at 5:30pm
