NORTHAMPTON - The No. 1 seed Smith College basketball team pulled away late in the fourth quarter to capture the 2025 NEWMAC Women's Basketball Championship with a 79-66 victory over MIT on Sunday afternoon inside Ainsworth Gymnasium. 

Smith (26-2) sealed the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with the win and the field of 64 will be announced on Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. The selection show will be streamed live on NCAA.com. Sixth-seeded MIT sees their season come to an end with an overall record of 13-15. 

Graduate student Ally Landau (Livingston, NJ) earned NEWMAC Most Outstanding Player honors as she averaged 14.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals rebounds in three tournament victories over Coast Guard, Salve Regina and MIT. 

Smith joins Babson (2009-13) as the only team in the history of the NEWMAC to win five-consecutive league championships. 

"It's definitely an experience that not a lot of college athletes get," Loo said. "It's a unique experience here. It means everything to me to be at such a high-performing and well-rounded school. To break history and win as an all-women's college, it's not something a lot of colleges get to do. So it definitely means a lot."

Top Performers

• Landau stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, five assists, four rebounds, and one steal
• Ella Sylvester (Everett, WA/Everett) scored a game-high 18 points to go along with five boards and two assists
• Hannah Martin (North Andover, MA/North Andover) added 17 points and was a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line, while Maggie Fleming (Downers Grove, IL/Downers Grove) posted 14 points, seven boards and four steals off the bench

By the Numbers

• Smith shot 50.9% from the field and 87.5% from the free throw line
• The Pioneers scored 56 points in the paint
• MIT held a 33-28 advantage in free throws and held the Smith offense to 0-of-12 shooting from long distance
• The Engineers shot 41.5% from the floor, 42.9% from three-point range, and 60% from the free throw line

Game Highlights

• MIT stormed out to a 19-9 lead after a Sarah Berman stepback 3-pointer swished through early in the second quarter. Smith responded with a 12-3 run to get within one, but the Engineers maintained their lead at halftime – a 26-25 edge. It marked just the second time all season that the Pioneers didn't go into the locker room ahead of their opponent.
• Early in the third, Landau began to take over the game. She dished two passes in transition, one to Sylvester and the other to Washington, that led to easy layups – the latter giving Smith its first lead of the game, 32-30, before scoring five straight points. Landau then found Fleming for another fastbreak bucket to up 39-32. Landau capped off her dominant five-minute stretch with two more field goals to give her nine points and three assists in the third quarter alone, and the Pioneers finally had some separation (51-42) heading to the final 10 minutes of play.
• The two teams traded a pair of baskets to open the fourth, but MIT wouldn't go away. The Engineers scored nine straight points to retake the lead at the 5:34 mark, with Kaya Weiser connecting on a triple to make it 56-55 in favor of the visitors.
• Sylvester and Landau each scored to put the Pioneers in front 66-61 with just over two minutes remaining, and the majority of the work the rest of the way came at the charity stripe. Smith went 12-for-13 from the line in the fourth quarter, and made its last 10 to seal title No. 5 in a row.

"I'm filled with gratitude for the teams before this team, obviously this team, the coaches I've had the last five years," Hersey said. "It's a choice to be good. You have habits that you do every single day that lead you to a moment like this. I'm just super grateful that I've been surrounded by players and coaches alike that choose to be great. They're willing to put in the time, discipline and choices in their daily lives that lead to moments like this." 

Up Next
The Smith basketball team will await to find out who and where they will play in the upcoming NCAA Tournament that will begin on Friday, March 7 at campus sites across the country. More information will be posted on SmithPioneers.com as it becomes available.

(Portions of this recap courtesy to Garrett Cote, Daily Hampshire Gazette)

About Smith Athletics: Smith College is a NCAA Division III member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference that sponsors 11 intercollegiate sports. For more information log on to smithpioneers.com and follow us on Facebook, and Instagram.