Defense Helps Women's Basketball Upend Smith, 54-34

WPI 54, Smith 34

Worcester, MA --- The WPI defense limited Smith to just 25% shooting from the floor en route to a 54-34 home victory in NEWMAC women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon. The Engineers, winners of three straight, see their record rise to 17-5 on the season and 9-1 in conference play. Smith dips to 8-12 overall and 2-8 in NEWMAC action.

As a result of Babson's 47-46 victory at Springfield, The Crimson and Gray enjoy a game and a half lead over both the Beavers and the Pride with just two weeks to go in the regular season.

After a slow start that saw WPI not score a point in the first 5:40 of the contest, the Engineers promptly rattled off 12 straight points to turn a 6-2 deficit into an advantage they would not relinquish the rest of the way. Defense keyed the WPI effort in the first stanza, as they forced 16 Pioneer turnovers to help take a 25-17 lead into the locker room at the break.

Serena Dubois (Bangor, ME) paced the WPI attack with a team-best 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Kaileen Selen (Worcester, MA), Melissa Kuhn (Stoughton, MA) and Elle Fontaine (Franklin, MA) each chipped in with nine points, with all of Selen's scoring coming in the second half. Brittany McNally (Mapleville, RI) added four points and three rebounds in a well-played 19 minutes of action off the bench, while senior point guard Natasha Deschene (Presque Isle, ME) led all players with six steals on the day.

Smith's Anna Veltri (West Milford, NJ) led all scorers with 12 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. As a team, the Pioneers were solid from behind the 3-point arc, canning 6-of-13 (46.2%) attempts. The visitors were not as effective on 2-pointers, connecting on just 7-of-39 (17.9%) tries. Berit Schelde (Holstebro, Denmark) tossed in five points for Smith while Sarah Posnak (Miami, FL) came off the bench to register team-bests of seven rebounds and four assists.

WPI is off until next Saturday when they venture to Norton, MA to take on Wheaton in a 3pm contest. Smith is back in action on Tuesday at 7pm when they host Connecticut College in a non-conference affair.