Balanced Offense Leads Basketball Wellesley Past Wheaton

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley College basketball used two late surges and a balanced offense to over-power Wheaton College, 70-56, on Tuesday night at Keohane Sports Center. The win lifts the Blue to 12-7 on the season, 11-4 in NEWMAC play. The Lyons drop to 8-14 overall, 5-10 in the conference.

Combining stingy defense and up-tempo offense, Wellesley closed out the first half with a 10-0 run and out-scored the Lyons 22-12 in the final seven minutes of the game to grab the victory. The Blue also forced 27 turnovers in the game while only surrendering the ball 13 times.

Wheaton surged to a 13-3 lead in the opening minutes of the game, courtesy of three-pointers from Kenzie Kuhn, Rebecca Arnone, and Laura Pierce. Wellesley rallied with a trey from Malia Maier and short jumpers from Ashleigh Sargent and Chelsi Scott to cut the lead to 13-10 midway through the period.

After trading buckets, the Blue pulled to within one on a Katie Shulenberger layup. The Lyons surged again, opening a 26-21 lead on two freethrows from Lauren McClelland, but Wellesley responded with 10 straight in the closing 90 seconds, including six from Morgyne Weaver, to take a 31-26 lead into the break.

Wellesley started the second half with an 8-2 run, highlighted by back-to-back buckets from Ashleigh Sargent, to build its largest lead of the game at 39-28. Wheaton stopped the bleeding with four straight from Kuhn, putting the score at 41-34 at the 14:54 mark.

Wellesley pushed the lead back to eleven, but the Lyons responded with an 8-1 run, including five points from Arnone and three from Melissa McLaughlin, to trim the lead to 48-44 with 7:53 left. Wellesley answered with its second major surge of the game, out-scoring the Lyons 16-3 over the next three minutes to grab a 60-47 advantage. The run, capped off by four points from Leslie Leong, sealed the game as Wellesley cruised to the 70-56 win.

The Lyons had four players in double-figures, led by Kuhn with 11. McLaughlin, Arnone, and Brickley had 10 each. Brickley led the visitors on the boards with seven, while Arnone and Shoemaker grabbed six a piece.

Leong led four Wellesley players in double figures, recording 13 points, while adding six rebounds. Ashleigh Sargent and Courtney Jackson each picked up 11-point games, with Maier filling up her box score with 10 points, seven steals and five assists. Wrapping up the Blue leaders, Chelsi Scott tallied nine points and six boards, while Morgyne Weaver added eight points.

Both squads return to NEWMAC action on Saturday at 2pm, when Wheaton hosts Clark and Wellesley travels to WPI.