Worcester State 68, Babson 63
Worcester, MA --- The Worcester State College women's basketball team earned their first win of the season hanging on for a, 68-63, decision over visiting Babson College Wednesday evening in Lancer Gymnasium. The win is their first over Babson since the 2004-05 season. The Lancers improve to, 1-6, on the year, while Babson also resets with the same, 1-6, record.
The Lancers jumped out to a huge first half advantage as they opened the contest with a 15-2 run over the first six minutes of action. Senior Lindsay DelleChiaie (Leominster, MA) led the opening charge with 8 points over that span including a pair of three pointers. Junior Erin McCullough (Harvard, MA) added a pair of buckets in the opening five minutes. Babson was able to cut the lead to just 7 points at the 11:09 mark but Worcester State responded with a 17-4 run over the next seven minutes to increase their lead to a game-high 20 points with 4:17 left in the half. Babson narrowed the gap over the final minutes to go into the break down 14, 37-23. DelleChiaie led all scorers in the half with 14 points including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Babson was paced by Caitlin Fenn (Niantic, CT) who tallied 8 points in the first frame.
Babson made a game of it in the second half. After Worcester State scored the first four points of the second half to push their advantage to 18 points, the Beavers scored 9 straight points to halve the lead. Babson slowly whittles away at the lead the rest of the half and with 1:17 remaining, Babson freshman Amanda Grammel (Leominster, MA) drained a three ball to bring Babson to within three points at, 61-58. From there, the Lancers took care of business at the free throw line down the stretch as McCullough hit three from the charity stripe to go along with a pair from Becca Giguere (West Brookfield, MA) and two from DelleChiaie to seal the victory for the Lancers.
DelleChiaie led the Lancers with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Freshman Alexis George (Worcester, MA) had 10 second half points to help Worcester State to the win. Freshman Kathleen Foley (Hudson, NH) also reached double digits with 10 points. For Babson, Fenn led all scorers with 20 points. Grammel chipped in with 9 points and senior Nicole McManus (Baldwinsville, NY) scored 8 points and hauled down 10 boards.
Worcester State returns to the hardwood on Saturday when they travel to Mount Holyoke. Babson will travel to Framingham State on Thursday evening to face the Rams.