DIII: Unranked Smith College ousts #8 Southern Maine in first-round of NCAA tournament
That happened. #scbb #TOMORROW #roundtwobaby twitter.com/SM3rcr/status/…
— Sara Elizabeth (@SM3rcr) March 2, 2013
From Smith Athletics:
GORHAM, Maine.–First NCAA Tournament game? Loud, boisterous home crowd? No problem. The Smith College basketball team continued their history making run with an 80-58 win over the No. 8 and host University of Southern Maine in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championship on Friday night. The Pioneers (23-4) matched the school record for wins and will play No. 25 Ithaca College at 7 p.m. on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16.
Paulina Solis led five Smith players in double-figures with 17 points. Rosa Drummond had 16, giving her 1,049 career points and moving her into eighth place on the Smith all-time scoring list. Devon Quattrocchi netted 14, and Sydney Parkmond added 12 in just 17 minutes of action. Lauren Weston was immense off the bench, with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting, nine rebounds, and four blocked shots.
The Pioneers sizzled offensively, connecting on 50% of their shots from the field, outrebounding the Huskies (27-2) 39-29, and forcing 22 turnovers. USM shot a mere 41.5% from the floor, including 4-of-13 from long distance.
Smith led from wire-to-wire, scoring the first points of the game on Quattrocchi’s jumper six seconds into the contest. Led by 10 points each from Solis and Drummond the Pioneers raced out to a commanding 41-28 lead at the half. The Pioneers were white-hot 51.4 percent (18-for-35) from the field. The Huskies shot a solid 42.3 percent (11-for-26) from the floor but were hampered by 14 first-half turnovers. Smith scored 17 of its 41 first-half points off of Huskies’ miscues.
The game was close in the opening 10 minutes of the game. USM trailed Smith 20-17 with 10:51 to play following a steal from McNamara and a layup from Knight. But the Pioneers pulled away with a 14-2 run to grab a 34-19 lead with 3:23 on the clock. Solis scored seven of the Pioneers’ 14 points. USM outscored Smith 9-7 in the final minutes of the half to trail 41-28.
Smith opened the second half outscoring USM 8-4 to lead 49-32 with 16:02 remaining, before USM made a strong push over the next six minutes and two seconds to pull to within eight of the Pioneers. McNamara and Garland each scored seven points as the Huskies used an 18-9 run for a 58-50 deficit with 10:00 on the clock.
The two teams exchanged baskets and USM trailed 64-53 with 7:27 to play after a short jumper from Knight in the paint, but the Pioneers closed the door on any thoughts of a USM comeback with a 14-0 run over the next seven and a half minutes to grab their largest lead of the game, 78-53, with just 2:35 to play. USM finished the game with 5-2 run in the final moments for the 80-58 final.
