Springfield, Mass. – February 3, 2024 – The Springfield College women's basketball team grinded out a 57-44 victory over WPI in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Saturday in Blake Arena.

The victory boosted the Pride's record to 17-4, 6-1 against conference opponents.  The loss dropped WPI to 10-11, 2-5.

Amanda Leary (Westbury, N.Y.) pumped in 18 points and pulled down seven rebounds and Jaelen Daubon (Hyde Park, N.Y.) chipped in 16 points of her own.  Angela Czeremcha (West Springfield, Mass.) tacked on eight rebounds and six points and Rachel Vinton (Holden, Mass.) contributed five boards, four assists, four steals, and four points. Springfield owned a 42-27 advantage on the glass and outscored the visitors by a 30-16 margin inside.

For WPI, Adrianna Niles paced the way with 16 points and five rebounds.  The visitors were limited to 15-of-49 shooting from the field (30%).

Springfield opened up a 16-7 lead when Claire Finney (Haverhill, Mass.) found Leary on a back cut with 2:10 remaining in the opening frame, capping off a 6-0 spurt that lasted just over two minutes. A three-point play inside the final 30 seconds of play by Leary would give Springfield a 21-10 advantage, as the hosts shot 53% from the field in the stanza.

The Pride scored nine of the first 10 points of the second quarter to extend its lead to 30-11 at the 5:02 mark as the visitors wouldn't score their first field goal until the 3:45 mark. Daubon would cash in on her third triple of the game to make it a 35-16 contest at 1:57 as the hosts would take a 37-22 cushion into the halftime break.  Leary and Daubon would combine for 27 points in the half, outscoring the visitors entire total.

Czeremcha sealed her defender off for an inside bucket with 6:11 on the clock in the third to push the lead to 43-24, only to have WPI battle back to make it a 13-point game on a pair of occasions, the last coming on a Niles turnaround jumper with 2:56 to play in the quarter. Ava Giansiracusa drilled a triple on the Engineers first possession of the fourth to make it an 11-point game, but Vinton answered with a driving layup and Leary followed with a triple to swing the momentum back to the Pride as it held on for the conference win.

On Wednesday, Springfield will travel to Rhode Island for a 7 pm tilt with Salve Regina.

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