It was a successful weekend for both the Smith College and Amherst College women’s basketball teams. Both squads picked up wins – the Pioneers earned a 89-49 win over New England College in their last regular season home game, while Amherst won its quarterfinal game in the NESCAC tournament against Colby College, 65-35.

AMHERST EARNS MAMMOTH WIN

No. 3 Amherst played its first NESCAC tourney game on Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals; the Mammoths earned a bye in the first round thanks to their conference record. They hosted No. 11 Colby College on Sunday afternoon after the Mules upset No. 6 Bowdoin 67-58 on Friday night to earn a berth in the quarters. 

Despite Colby’s thrilling win on Friday, the visitors weren’t able to replicate the feat a second time. Amherst outplayed the Mules in every statistical category – they scored 17 points off turnovers to Colby’s zero, outscored them 28-12 in the paint, and scored double the points Colby did on both fastbreaks (8-4) and second chance points (10-5). 

The Mules got their first and only lead early in the first quarter, and from that moment forward the Mammoths stayed in front the rest of the way. Though Amherst outscored the lower seed 26-17 in the first half, Colby kept it close, sneaking back to within a point of the Mammoths three and a half minutes into the second quarter. With the Mules right on their heels, the Mammoths went off on a 10-2 run led by Gabrielle Zaffiro and Courtney Resche to give Amherst a 26-17 lead heading into the half. 

The second half was all Amherst. The Mammoths held Colby to 13 points in the third quarter and just five in the fourth while knocking down a combined 39 points in the second half. The win was a group effort for the Mammoths – both Zaffiro and Dani Valdez led the team in scoring with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Resche was just shy of breaking double digits with nine points. Valdez and Resche co-led the team with eight boards apiece, and nine players found the scoresheet for the Mammoths. 

Amherst will play their semifinal matchup against No. 2 Tufts on Saturday in a game to be played at Trinity College (4:30 p.m.). No. 1 Trinity will play No. 5 Bates in the other semifinal, with the title tilt set for Sunday at noon.

SMITH WINS ON SENIOR NIGHT

Smith ended its regular season on a six-game winning streak, an emphatic win for the program’s four seniors – Dashelle Gleissner, Kyra Rideout, Elle Jo Whalen, and Westhampton native Katelyn Pickunka – who were honored during a pregame ceremony on Saturday.

Their 89-49 win featured the highest-scoring output that the Pioneers posted this season; the team previously scored a season-high 87 points against the United States Coast Guard Academy on Feb. 5. The win also cemented the team’s No. 1 seed in the upcoming NEWMAC tournament, which will begin on Friday.

Morgan Morrison scored a team-leading 20 points and six rebounds off the bench for the Pioneers. Three other Smith players cracked the double-digit scoring plateau, with Pickunka (16), Jessie Ruffner (12) and Ally Yamada (12) also contributing to Smith’s offensive success. 

The game started with a back-and-forth opening five minutes. Smith broke the game with a layup from Pickunka that sparked a 10-0 run for the Pioneers, building up a 16-8 lead. Smith finished the first quarter leading 20-10, and never looked back from there. 

The second quarter was a low-scoring frame for both squads; Smith managed just 12 points and New England posted nine. Nobody managed a point in the final 2:22 of the period, but the Pioneers still maintained their lead, going into halftime up 32-19.

It didn’t take long for Smith to find their its touch after halftime. Yamada knocked down a triple 32 seconds into the second, and the floodgates opened from there. The Pioneers shot 73.3 percent from the field in the third, posting 32 points and limiting NEC to just 15 to extend their lead to 30 points. They kept that energy up in the final period, outscoring the visitors 25-15 to get the win. 

As the No. 1 seed, Smith earned a bye in the first round of the NEWMAC tournament. The Pioneers will host their quarterfinal game against either No. 4 WPI or No. 5 MIT on Friday at 7 p.m.