Wellesley Basketball Falls to Salve Regina

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Wellesley College basketball team suffered a 53-42 loss to Salve Regina on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the Williams College Tip-Off Tournament. The loss drops the Blue to 0-2, as Wellesley opened the season with two 2012 NCAA Tournament teams. Salve Regina moves to 1-1 with the victory. 

Following the game, Wellesley sophomore Courtney Jackson was named to the All-Tournament team.

The Blue opened the game with a 6-0 run, using three lay-ups to take the early control. Salve Regina battled back to take the lead, capped by a Meaghan Harden three to put the Seahawks ahead 7-6 with just over five minutes elapsed. 

Salve stretched their lead to 15-8 midway through the half, backed by four points from Brianna Valle. Wellesley cut the lead to 18-13 with a Malia Maier three at 7:32, and then came to within two on a lay-up from Chelsi Scott with 3:39 remaining in the first-half.  The Seahawks would put together a mini-run down the stretch, going into the break with a 25-19 advantage over the Blue.

Wellesley hit on 9 of 22 shots in the first half for 40%, while Salve shot 39% on 10-26. The Blue held a slight first-half edge on the glass (14-13) with Ashleigh Sargent and Scott each snaring five.

In the second half, Wellesley would cut the Salve lead to six on two occasions, but the Seahawks used a 7-2 run to take a 39-27 lead on a Allison Pigoga lay-up, with 10:35 to play. 

Wellesley whittled the Salve advantage down to eight points, after a Maier lay-up with 1:45 remaining, but the Seahawks closed out the contest with a lay-up and two made free throws to snag the 53-42 win.


For Salve Regina, Harden tallied a game-high 18 points, while Allison Pigoga topped the Seahawks' on the glass with seven rebounds.

Wellesley is back in action on Monday, November 26^th, traveling to Simmons College for a 7:00pm match-up.