BABSON PARK, Mass. — Junior Virginia Johnson (Minneapolis, Minn.) scored a team-high 16 points and No. 6/5 Smith College hit 8-of-11 three-pointers in a 28-point first quarter and went on to defeat Babson College, 67-49, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's basketball contest Wednesday evening inside Staake Gymnasium.
With the loss, Babson had its seven-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 16-8 overall and 8-2 in conference play. Smith, ranked No. 6 by D3hoops.com and No. 5 by the WBCA, won its ninth game in a row to improve to 23-1 overall, and clinched its fifth consecutive NEWMAC regular season title with a 10-0 conference mark.
Sophomore
Rylie Rosenberg (New Rochelle, N.Y.) led all scorers with a career-high 21 points for the Beavers, knocking down five three-pointers and making 7-of-15 field goal attempts. First-year
Alyssa Hopps (Quincy, Mass.) added eight points and a game and season-high nine rebounds along with two blocked shots in the loss.
Johnson made 6-of-9 shots from field, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc for the Bears; fellow junior Hannah Martin (North Andover, Mass.) finished with 13 points and team-highs of eight rebounds and three assists, sinking a pair of three-pointers; and classmate Uta Nakamura (Manhattan, N.Y.) scored 10 points with two three-pointers of her own in the win.
Smith shot 55.6 percent in the first quarter (10-of-18) including a whopping 8-of 11 (72.7 percent) from three-point range. Johnson made three shots from long range in the frame while Martin and Nakamura drained two apiece.
Junior Felicia Fongemie (Ashford, Conn.), Johnson and Martin all hit long balls for Smith around a Babson three-pointer by senior
Chloe Perrault (Danbury, Conn.) to take an 11-3 lead two-and-a-half minutes in. Johnson sunk two more threes around a Babson jumper by graduate student
Emily Flynn (Hanover, Mass.) as the lead grew to 17-5 two minutes later, and Martin was good again from deep to make it 20-5 with 4:54 on the clock.
Junior Maggie Fleming (Downers Grove, Ill.) joined in the 3-point parade as Smith built its largest lead of the quarter (22-5) with three minutes to go. Hopps and Rosenberg made back-to-back baskets to give Babson some life, but Makamura made two more 3-balls in the final two minutes, offset only by a three from Rosenberg, as the visitors led 28-12 after one.
Babson got the margin down to 12 points early in the second quarter on a layup by sophomore
Julia St. Laurent (Greenland, N.H.) and a three-pointer by Rosenberg, but Smith answered with nine straight points as the lead ballooned to 38-17 with less than three minutes to go in the half. Rosenberg stopped the bleeding with a triple for Babson but Martin's late layup gave the Bears a 40-20 lead at the break.
The Beavers whittled away at the deficit in the third quarter and got as close as 13 points (46-33) after a jumper by senior
Allessia Carlo (Carmel, N.Y.) with 2:22 on the clock, and again after a pair of Carlo free throws with 1:39 to place to make it 49-36, but Smith answered with the final seven points of the frame to take a 56-36 lead into the fourth quarter. The Bears maintained the 20-point margin most of the fourth quarter until the final two minutes.
Smith shot 48.0 percent from the field and 55 percent (11-of-20) from three-point range while Babson connected on just 30.4 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Both teams wrap up the regular season on Saturday as Babson travels to Wheaton for a 12 p.m. tip-off and Smith visits MIT for a 3 p.m. encounter.
GAME NOTES
• Babson has dropped seven in a row to the Bears and is 40-20 all-time against Smith in a series that dates back to the 1982-83 campaign.
• The Green and White had its 13-game winning streak in the month of February, dating back to 2024, snapped.
• The Beavers were held to just five assists, their lowest since finishing with five assists in a loss to Emerson on January 18, 2025.
• Hopps is averaging 10.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in her last three games, shooting 56.0 percent from the field.
