NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's basketball team was defeated by host No. 7 Smith College, 83-37, this afternoon at Ainsworth Gymnasium in Northampton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 5-12 overall and 1-2 in league play, while the Pioneers, who are ranked in the most recent Women's Basketball Coaches Association nation poll, win their 11th straight game to improve to 15-1 and a perfect 3-0.
Smith shot 48.5% (32-66) from the floor, including 7-18 (38.9%) from three-point range and owned a decisive 43-24 rebounding advantage. Wheaton owned a 28% (14-50) shooting mark, despite stroking it at 41.7% (5-12) from beyond the three-point arc.
Junior guard Kiki Walters (Fleetwood, Pa.) contributed with seven points and a rebound for the Lyons, while first year guard Emma Garapetian (Watertown, Mass.) netted six points on 2-3 from the field, including her only three-point try and added two rebounds in nine minutes off the bench. Senior guard Greta Minos (Boston, Mass.) chipped in with five points, five rebounds and a blocked shot.
Graduate student guard Ally Landau (Livingston, N.J.) scored a game-high 21 points on 8-12 from the floor for the Pioneers, including a trio of three-pointers, in addition to six boards, a block and a steal. Sophomore guard Uta Nakamura (Manhattan, N.Y.) came off the bench to drop in 10 points on 4-8 shooting to go with four rebounds.
Smith scored the first 14 points of the game, including six from Nakamura, before senior forward Mireille Tona (Portland, Maine) converted a free throw to put Wheaton on the board with 64 seconds left in the opening quarter. Minos later hit a floating jumper for the Lyons to make it 17-3 before the end of the quarter.
Walters and sophomore forward Cheyenne Colbert (Brookline, N.H.) drained back-to-back triples to begin the second quarter and pull Wheaton within 17-9 with 8:31 showing in the period. The Pioneers responded with a 17-4 stretch over the next seven minutes, fueled by seven points from Landau, to take a 34-13 margin with 1:37 to go in the opening half. The Lyons closed out the quarter with three of the final five points to cut the deficit to 36-16 at the intermission.
Smith further put the game out of reach with a 12-3 run, including five from Landau, to increase its cushion to 48-19 with 5:51 remaining in the quarter. Walters canned a jumper for Wheaton at 5:05, before the home team scored the final 12 points of the period, on 5-7 shooting, to take a 60-21 lead into the final quarter of action.
Garapetian stuck a jumper at the 7:56 mark of the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 64-23 for the Lyons, but a 14-6 stretch, paced by four points each from first year forward Samara Ashooh (Shelburne, Vt.) and sophomore guard Maggie Fleming (Downers Grove, Ill.), gave the Pioneers their largest lead at 78-29 with 3:25 to play in the game. The Lyons scored six of the next seven points, led by five points from junior guard Madeline Duwe (Greenville, S.C.), to pull them within 79-35 with 53 ticks left on the game clock.
Wheaton returns to the court on Wednesday, January 29 when it hosts league foe Clark University at Emerson Gymnasium for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off, while Smith is in action the same night in Springfield, Mass., taking on Springfield College at 7:00 p.m. in NEWMAC play.
