Women's Basketball Defeated 73-59 by Babson College in Season Opener

Babson Park, Mass. – The Framingham State University women's basketball team opened the season this evening with a 73-59 loss to Babson College in an opening round matchup at the Babson College Invitational at Staake Gymnasium.

Senior All-American Sarah Collins (Weymouth, Mass.) scored 15 of her game-high 25 points in the second half and Babson College shot .446 from the floor as the Beavers (1-0) won their season-opener for the fourth consecutive season while Framingham State drops to 0-1 with the loss.

Collins shot 12-of-19 from the floor and pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds, including six on the offensive end while blocking two shots and grabbing three steals to lead Babson. Sophomore guard Erin Young (Westwood, Mass.) chipped in with 12 points while shooting 4-of-8 from three-point range. The Beavers collected 17 assists on their 29 made field goals, led by four from first-year Meg Otto (Scituate, Mass.).

Framingham State got 15 points and seven rebounds from senior Madeleine Park (Blue Hill, Maine), 14 points and five rebounds from junior Kristen Hoffman (Foxboro, Mass.), and 10 points, a team-high seven rebounds, and a game-high five assists from senior Kia Minor (Edgartown, Mass.).

Babson, which led 34-31 at the half, used a 10-0 spurt spanning the end of the first half and beginning of the second half to take an eight point lead just over two minutes into the second. Collins hit one of two free throws and following a pair Framingham State turnovers, senior guard Allanah Wynn (Weymouth, Mass.) and Collins converted layups to give the Beavers' their biggest lead of the game at 39-31.

The Rams' Minor and Collins traded buckets before a Nicole Bostic (Raynham, Mass.) three-pointer pulled Framingham back within 41-36 with 16:15 remaining. From there, the Beavers took control, going on a 16-5 run and holding the Rams to just one field goal over the next 7:29. Collins sparked the run with a pair of layups and Young drained a trio of three-pointers, the last of which stretched Babson's lead to 57-41 with just under nine minutes to play.

Framingham State closed the gap to 59-50 as Park sandwiched a pair of three-point field goals around teammate Margo McCarthy's (Southampton, Mass.) trifecta, but Babson answered right back with a 10-0 run on the strength of two Collins layups, and buckets by first-years Brianna Hunt (Auburndale, Mass.), Linnett Graber (Rosendale, N.J.), and Otto to push the margin to 69-50 with 2:35 left in the game.

Babson took a three point lead into halftime after an opening 20 minutes that featured six ties and six lead changes, with neither team leading by more than five points. The Beavers jumped to an early 7-2 lead in the opening two minutes behind hoops from Wynn and Collins, and a three-point play from sophomore Nikki Heavern (Hull, Mass.). Framingham State took its first lead of the game, 11-10, on a three-pointer from McCarthy with 13:48 left in the stanza, and led 15-14 at the 11:34 mark before Babson used a pair of Hunt free throws and layups from Collins and Graber to spark a 6-0 run and match its biggest lead at 20-15 midway through the half.

Hoffman drained her first three-pointer of the night for the Rams to tie the game at 29-29 with 2:02 remaining before halftime and on the following possession Minor converted a transition layup following a steal by sophomore Samantha Irvine (Franklin, Mass.) to take their biggest lead of the half at 31-29. Babson closed the half by scoring five straight points on a three-pointer by first-year Kristen Ferola (Florence, Mass.), followed by a layup by Collins, to regain the lead.

Babson outrebounded Framingham State 51-36 and held the Rams to just 34 percent from the field on the night.  

Both teams will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as the host Beavers will meet the winner of Bowdoin and Rhode Island College in the Babson Invitational Championship Game at 3:30 p.m., while Framingham State will take on either the Polar Bears or Anchorwomen in the Consolation Game at 1:30 p.m.

Release courtesy of Babson Sports Information.