No. 5 Springfield 53, No. 1 Smith 66 – Final 

No. 5/7 nationally-ranked and top-seeded Smith College defeated the fifth-seeded Springfield College women's basketball team, 66-53, in the semifinal round of the 2026 NEWMAC Championship Tournament on Friday night in Ainsworth Gymnasium.

Smith improved to 26-1 and will advance to the NEWMAC title game for the sixth consecutive season against Clark University on Sunday afternoon, while Springfield sees its 2025-26 campaign end at 16-11. Clark defeated Babson, 68-51, in the other semifinal this afternoon.

Smith remained unbeaten at home this season and is 16-0 in Ainsworth Gymnasium this year and 81-4 over the past five seasons.

Smith's Hannah Martin (North Andover, Mass.) led all scorers with 19 points, shooting 5-of-7 from behind the arc. Teammate Virginia Johnson (Minneapolis, Minn.) had a game-high 10 rebounds. 

Amanda Leary (Westbury, N.Y.) ended up leading Springfield with 13 points tonight, all of which came in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Claire Finney (Haverhill, Mass.) and Natalie Lucas (Madison, Conn.) both recorded ten points for the Pride. Leary also led Springfield with nine rebounds and two assists. 

Springfield produced the first four points of the contest on jumpers by Lucas and Finney and eventually led 8-4 six minutes in following a pair of free throws by Finney, but a pair of shots from behind the arc from Martin and a layup by Mya Williams gave the homestanding Bears a 12-8 edge through one. Smith shot just 31.3-percent from the floor in the first and held Springfield to three field goals of its own (20.0-percent) over the opening ten minutes of play.

Smith scored the final eight points of the first and notched the first ten points of the second, holding Springfield without a basket for nearly eight minutes extending the lead to 14 at 22-8 with 6:21 left in the half. A pair of free throws by Madison Lopez (Bronx, N.Y.) broke the scoreless streak for the Pride before a three-point bucket from Lucas cut the deficit to ten. Lopez and Carrie Hess (Shrewsbury, Mass.) each made shots from the floor late in the half before a trey by Martin capped the scoring as Smith took a 32-20 lead into the break.

In the first half alone, Smith drained 11 shots from the floor, including six from behind the arc, while the Bears held Springfield to just six made field goals over the first 20 minutes of the contest. The pride did, however, go 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Smith went on to outscore Springfield 18-11 in the third. Springfield had its best quarter of the game in the fourth, tallying 22 of its 53 points with 13 of those coming from Leary. In the fourth, Springfield knocked down five shots from the floor and 11 of its 13 attempts from the free throw line, but Smith's offense was relentless as the Bears scored 16 of their own over the final ten minutes of play en route to the 66-53 final.

No. 3 Clark 68, No. 2 Babson 51 – Final 

Junior Emma Drefs (Ridgecrest, Calif.) finished with team-highs of 16 points and eight rebounds, and third-seeded Clark University went on a 16-1 run in the second quarter to open up an 18-point lead on the way to a 68-51 victory over second-seeded Babson College in a NEWMAC women's basketball tournament semifinal Friday evening inside Staake Gymnasium. 

Babson, which had won nine of its last 10 games, sees its season come to an end with an 18-9 record after posting the most wins since 2022-23. Clark improves to 19-8 overall and punched its ticket to the NEWMAC championship game for the first time since 2005.

Sophomore Rylie Rosenberg (New Rochelle, N.Y.) led all scorers with 21 points for Babson, knocking down 6-of-12 3-point shots and 7-of-14 overall. Graduate student Emily Flynn (Hanover, Mass.) finished with nine points and team-highs of seven rebounds and two blocked shots, with seven of her points coming at the free throw line. Sophomore Julia St. Laurent (Greenland, N.H.) chipped in with five points and six rebounds in the loss.

Drefs made 6-of-11 shots and grabbed three steals to lead a balanced scoring for the Cougars. First-year Atiya Watson (Los Angeles, Calif.) scored 12 points and handed out four assists, sophomore Cyriah Coleman (Los Angeles, Calif.) contributed nine points and six rebounds, and junior Kailey Rios (Hesperia, Calif.) finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals.

Babson had a strong start to the game, scoring nine straight points and jumping out to an 11-4 lead on the strength of a pair of 3-pointers by Rosenberg and three points from senior Allessia Carlo (Carmel, N.Y.). Clark answered with back-to-back threes by Coleman and junior Catherine Antwi (Lowell, Mass.), and tied the game at 12-all on a layup by first-year Leilani Benson (Boston, Mass.) with 3:26 remaining. A 3-pointer by Rios and another Benson layup in the final two minutes gave the visitors a 17-14 lead after one.

Watson and Rosenberg traded baskets to open the second quarter, but Clark went on a 16-1 run over the next eight minutes to open up a 35-17 margin as Babson missed nine straight shots while turning the ball over three times. Six different players contributed points for Clark in the rally, led by Drefs and Coleman with four each. Sophomore Alessa Mendoza (Yonkers, N.Y.) finally hit Babson's first field goal in more than eight minutes with 34 seconds remaining in the quarter but Babson went into the break down 35-19.

The Beavers got as close as 13 points early in the third quarter after a three-pointer by Rosenberg and again following a pair of free throws by Flynn, but Clark ran off 11 straight points, sparked by a pair of buckets by junior Olivia Shipley (Castleton, Vt.) and capped by a Rios triple, as the Clark lead ballooned to 48-24 midway through the third.

Carlo broke four-minute drought for Babson and Rosenberg followed with a three-ball to get the margin under 20 points, but Clark outscored the Beavers 8-5 over the final three minutes of the quarter to take a 56-34 margin into the fourth quarter.

Babson made a comeback attempt in the final frame, cutting the deficit to 14 points (57-43) after a Flynn 3-point play with 8:05 remaining, and down to 13 points (59-46) after a 3-pointer by senior Chloe Perrault (Danbury, Conn.) with five minutes to play, but that's as close as the Beavers could get.

Clark shot 40 percent from the field and 25.9 percent from beyond the arc and outrebounded the Beavers 40-31. Babson connected on just 31.9 percent from the field after making just 16.7 percent in the second quarter.

The Cougars will take on four-time defending champion Smith on Sunday in the NEWMAC final at 1 p.m. in Northampton, Mass.

About the NEWMAC

The NEWMAC is an association of 12 selective academic institutions: Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Salve Regina University, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, that are committed to providing high quality competitive athletic opportunities for student-athletes within an educational and respectful environment that embodies the NCAA Division III Philosophy. The conference also partners with eight Associate Members: Brandeis University (Women's Lacrosse, 2026-2027), New York University (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), Norwich University (Football), Simmons College (Rowing), SUNY Maritime College (Football), SUNY New Paltz (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Football), and Vassar College (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), while sponsoring 20 sports.