Wellesley Basketball Downs Salve Regina, Advances to ECAC Semifinals

WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Wellesley College basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the ECAC Division III New England Tournament with a 54-42 win over Salve Regina University on Wednesday evening at the Keohane Sports Center. The win improved the third-seeded Blue to 16-10, while sixth-seeded Salve Regina sees its 2012-13 campaign come to a close at 17-12.

The Blue out-shot the Seahawks, using a 40% shooting performance to Salve's 30%, as Wellesley avenged an earlier loss to the visitors. The teams met in the second game of the season, with Salve grabbing a 53-42 victory at the Williams Tip-Off Tournament.

Wellesley jumped out to an early 8-1 lead as Malia Maier hit back-to-back threes and Meghan Sargent added a third Blue trey, putting Wellesley up, 11-3, five minutes into play. Salve countered with jumpers from Briana Del Valle and Allison Pigoga to cut the lead to 13-7.

Wellesley then strung together a 9-3 run to open the largest advantage of the game, a 24-12 edge with 3:24 in the half. Four points from Ashleigh Sargent and another three from Maier highlighted the Blue surge.

Salve wouldn't go away, however, as the Seahawks whittled the lead to just seven, after four points from Kaitlyn Birrell and a three from Meagan Harden set the score to 28-21 with under 30 to play. Wellesley's Leslie Leong added a lay-up for the Blue over the remaining seconds to set the score at 30-21 at the break.

Maier collected nine first half points for Wellesley, while Morgyne Weaver added eight.  Harden led the Seahawks offense at the break with eight points, while Birrell's four first-half points included the 1,000th of her career.

After the teams traded buckets to open up the second half, Salve Regina went on an 8-2 run to cut the Wellesley lead to 34-29. Four different Seahawks scored during the surge, which was capped by a Melissa Pendergast jumper with 17:23 to play.

Wellesley regained control of the game after the Salve run, extending their lead back up to 11 points, at 40-29. A Weaver jumper at the 12-minute mark capped the surge. Again, though, Salve fought back to close to gap to 46-40 on a Harden lay-up with 7:15 to play.

From that point on, it was all Wellesley, as the Blue closed out the game with an 8-2 run. Chelsi Scott had two crucial baskets during the final minutes, while Ashleigh Sargent added four points of her own to seal the 54-42 Wellesley victory.

Weaver ended the night with 12 points to lead Wellesley, while Ashleigh Sargent added 10 points and Maier finished with nine points and eight assists. Leong recorded a team-high nine rebounds to go along with six points and five steals to round out the Blue effort.

For Salve Regina, Harden's 17 points led all players, while Pendergrast finished with five points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Del Valle added an eight-point, six-rebound performance, while Birrell wrapped up the Seahawks box score with four points and five assists.

Wellesley will now head to Castleton State College on Saturday, to take on the number-two seed in the tournament, Suffolk University, in the semifinals. Number one seed and host, Castleton, will play the fifth seed, Westfield State, in the other semifinal. Saturday will mark Wellesley's first appearance in the ECAC semifinals since the 2000-01 season, when the team finished as ECAC Runner-Up.