Women's Basketball vs. Roger Williams
Friday, November 15 | 7 p.m. 
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 2-2 all-time against Roger Williams in a series that dates back to the 1981-82 season.
•    After a 40-year hiatus in the series, the Beavers and Hawks will meet for the fourth year in a row on Friday night. 
•    The home team has been victorious in each of the last three meetings and all three contests have been decided by eight points or less. 

LAST MEETING
•    Kelly Walsh '24 scored a game-high 21 points and junior Chloe Perreault recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds but Babson suffered a 70-63 loss to Roger Williams on November 11, 2023, in Bristol, R.I.
•    Senior Katelyn Mollica added 11 points for the Beavers, who cut a 14-point third-quarter deficit down to three on three occasions over the final five minutes of the game. 
•    Katie Galligan and Sophia Coppola both scored 19 points and Caroline Elie finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and four assists for the Hawks, who shot 42.6 percent and scored 16 seconds-chance points in the victory. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (1-2) has dropped its last two games after falling 79-74 in overtime to Bridgewater State in its home opener on Wednesday night inside Staake Gymnasium. 
•    Mollica scored a game-high 23 points, sophomore Samantha Reale added a career-high 22 points and eight rebounds, and senior Emily Flynn posted a double-double with 12 points and 13 boards for the Beavers, who led by as many as six late in regulation. 
•    Mollica (15.3 pts, 1.7 reb) is shooting 37.5 percent from beyond the arc, Reale (12.7 pts, 5.7 reb, 2.3 stl) is averaging more than five free throw attempts per game and senior Camilla Silk is contributing 6.0 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds to go along with 2.0 steals in three starts. 
•    The Green and White owns a +6.7 rebounding margin through its first three outings and is holding its opponents to just 20.4 percent shooting from three-point range. 

SCOUTING THE HAWKS
•    Roger Williams (0-1) suffered a 72-57 loss to Montclair State in its season opener last Saturday. 
•    Elizabeth Dufresne and Chloe Richardson both scored 11 points, Lilli Clark came off the bench to score seven points and Coppola added six points, seven rebounds and four blocks for the Hawks, who were outscored 39-24 while shooting just 31.8 percent in the second half. 
•    Roger Williams returns nine players from a team that went 18-9 last winter led by Coppola, who averaged 14.4 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 39.4 percent from three-point range. 
•    Abrille Racine (7.4 pts, 5.1 reb) shot 43.3 percent in 13 games in 2023-24 and Dufresne contributed 6.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in 26 appearances for a Hawks' squad that was picked to finish second in the CNE preseason coaches' poll. 

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AT BABSON
•    Babson will honor its first female varsity team, the 1974-75 women's basketball squad, before and during Friday's contest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the program at the College
•    The 13-member team, which included Audrey Brown, Kim Buttle Cranshaw, Julia Carpenter, Faith Holway, Chris Joubert, Kathy Kralic, co-captain Lorna Turner Keel, Marion Browning, Adrienne Halsey Wald, co-captain Susan Jackson Fitzgerald, Kathy O'Brien McCann, Helen Ruff Copeland and Maria Serpentino and was coached by Fran Hartwell, was winless in five games but laid the foundation for a 7-3 record the following season and the decades of success the program has enjoyed.
•    The program has been coached by eight women, including Fran Hartwell for three seasons, Susan Bradbury, Barbara May, and Nancy DiZio for one season each, Donna Tanner from 1981 to 1983, Terry Febrey for one season, Judy Blinstrub, who is with us tonight, for an amazing 39 seasons from 1984 to 2023, and current head coach Kate Barnosky, who is in her second season.
•    The past 50 years have included 10 conference championships, 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, including Sweet 16 showings six times, and three Elite Eight appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2023.

THOMPSON GARNERS PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA HONORS
•    Graduate student Toni Thompson was named to the D3hoops.com Preseason All-America fifth team last week. 
•    A transfer from Occidental College, Thompson returned after missing the entire 2022-23 season because of injury to average 24.5 points, 11. 2 rebounds and 2.2 steals while shooting 42.5 percent in 26 starts last season while leading Occidental to its first conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.
•    Thompson recorded 17 double-doubles, scored 30 or more points seven times and reached double figures in scoring in all but one contest in 2023-24, and averaged 20.1 points on 46.8 percent shooting and 8.7 boards in 45 games over two seasons at Occidental.  

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
•    After knocking down 55 three-pointers as Babson advanced to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in 2022-23, Mollica buried a school-record 68 triples last winter surpassing the previous mark of 56 set by Joanna Maher '03 back in 2001-02. 
•    Mollica, who has knocked down nine triples over the first three contest, ranks fourth in program history with 132 three-point field goals in just 63 games and is 58 shy of the Beavers' all-time record of 190 set by Erin Young '15.

BEAVER BITES
•    Flynn, who attempted just one shot in Babson's first two games, posted her first career double-double and finished with a career-high 13 rebounds against Bridgewater State. 
•    Reale topped 20 points for the first time in her career, while Mollica matched her career high with 23 points on Wednesday night against the Bears. 
•    Perreault scored a season-high eight points to go along with six boards in Wednesday's loss, while Silk pulled down a season-high 11 rebounds. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    Babson went 12-3 last winter when shooting 40 percent or better. 
•    The Green and White is 43-3 going back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign when holding its opponents below 60 points. 
•    The Beavers are 12-2 since the start of last season when outscoring their opponents at the free throw line.
•    Babson's nine three-pointers in Wednesday's loss to Bridgewater State were its most since making 10 triples in an 83-59 win over Salve Regina on January 20 of last season. 

UP NEXT
•    The Beavers travel to Medford, Mass., to take on Tufts next Friday at 5 p.m.