Box Score CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The twin towers of Rosa Drummond (Rye, N.H./Portsmouth) and Ellie Giles (Charlottesville, Va./St. Annes Belfield) led the way as the Smith College basketball team defeated MIT 52-39 on Saturday to capture the No. 3 seed in the upcoming New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament.

The Pioneers (15-9, 12-6 NEWMAC) won their sixth consecutive game and will host No. 6 seed Clark University on Wednesday, February 23rd, at 7 p.m.  MIT concludes their season with an 8-16 record, and a 4-14 record in NEWMAC play. 

Smith overcame an early 8-4 deficit with an 11-0 run midway through the first half.  A pair of free throws from Giles got things started, and Giles and Drummond alternated baskets for four consecutive Smith scores, followed by a triple from Drummond that boosted the lead to to 15-8.  Smith led by as many as nine in the first half when Marissa Munoz-Ruiz (Fairfield, Calif./Justin-Siena) put back a miss of a Jessica Welk (Arlington, Wash./Arlington) three pointer, and carried a 25-19 lead into halftime.

The Engineers got within five points, cutting the lead to 27-22 on Tamara Pena's triple with 1:12 played in the first half, but Smith never let MIT get back into the game, going up 37-27 on Amanda Zakoske (Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School)'s layup and when Libby Dutton (Deering, N.H./Hillsboro-Deering) set up Giles for a basket with 5:36 to play, Smith was up 45-33.  The Pioneers limited the Engineers to just six points the rest of the way, taking their largest lead of the game with 3:21 to play on Devon Quattrocchi (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster)'s free throw.

Drummond led all scorers with 18 points, connecting on six of 12 field goals and added to her stat line with eight rebounds, two steals, and a blocked shot.  Giles, whose previous season high had been eight, doubled that total with 16 points, knocking down all six of her free throws to go with 5-for-9 shoot form the floor, and pulled down a team high nine rebounds. 

The Pioneers will now prepare for their third matchup of the season with Clark.  The teams split their regular season series, with both teams winning on the road.  The Cougars came from behind to pull out a 59-55 win in Northampton on January 13, while Smith needed overtime to knock them off , 69-66 in Worcester on February 9.  The No. 3 seed is the highest for Smith since the 1997-98 season, where the third seeded Pioneers advanced to the fina of the NEW8 tournament, as it was then known, before falling, ironically, to Clark, 85-75.