No. 5 Wellesley to Open NEWMAC Basketball Championship at No. 4 MIT

2020 NEWMAC Women's Basketball Championship Bracket

WESTWOOD, Mass. - The New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) has revealed the 2020 Women's Basketball Championship bracket. Wellesley College basketball (6-4 NEWMAC) finished as the fifth seed and will play at fouth-seeded MIT on Wednesday, February 26th at 7:00 PM in the NEWMAC Quarterfinals. 

Wednesday's quarterfinal match-up between the Engineers and the Blue will be a rematch of the game that took place earlier this week on Wednesday, February 18. MIT earned a narrow 54-50 victory over Wellesley. The match-up will be the first postseason meeting between the two teams since Wellesley earned a 56-49 win over MIT in the first round of the 2001 ECAC Championship tournament. 

The championship tournament will consist of seven teams that will compete for the title of NEWMAC Champion, with games beginning on Wednesday, February 26th. Babson (10-0) earned the top seed, after producing a perfect record in conference play and receive a first round bye with hosting rights to a semifinal. Springfield (9-1) secured the second seed and will host a first round matchup. Following a head to head tie-break, Smith (7-3) emerged as the third seed, followed by MIT (7-3) at the fourth seed with both teams hosting a first round game. Emerson (5-5) is the sixth seed and WPI (4-6) became the seventh seed over Coast Guard (4-6) with a head to head win in the regular season. 

The No. 7 WPI Engineers will travel to the No. 2 Pride for a first round game, as the No. 6 Lions will head to the No. 3 Pioneers and No. 5 Blue will head across town to No. 4 MIT Engineers on Wednesday. The No. 1 Beavers will host a semifinal matchup with the winner of the game between No. 5 Wellesley and No. 4 MIT. At the highest remaining seeds, the winner of the No. 6 Emerson and No. 3 Smith game will take on the winner of No. 2 Springfield and No. 7 WPI on Friday, February 28th. 

The winners of the each semifinal game will meet in the final game on Saturday, March 1st at the site of the highest remaining seed. 

2020 NEWMAC Women's Basketball Championship

First Round - Wednesday, February 26th (at highest seeds)

No. 7 WPI at No. 2 Springfield – 7:00 p.m.

No. 6 Emerson at No. 3 Smith – 7:00 p.m.

No. 5 Wellesley at No. 4 MIT – 7:00 p.m.

Semifinals - Friday, February 28th (at highest remaining seeds)

Winner No. 4/5 at No. 1 Babson  – 7:00 p.m.

Winner No.3/No. 6 vs. Winner No. 2/7 – 7:00 p.m.

Championship - Saturday, March 1st (at highest remaining seed)

Semifinal Winners – 1:00 p.m.

The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference consists of 11 highly selective institutions committed to academic excellence: Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.