Northampton, Mass.—Smith's Lizzy BelBruno and Rosa Drummond each scored 14 points to lead a foursome of Pioneers in double figures as third-seeded Smith defeated sixth-seeded Clark, 72-61 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) quarterfinals on Wednesday evening.

With the win, the Pioneers improve to 16-9 and advances to the conference semifinals against second-seeded WPI on Saturday, February 26 at 3 p.m.  Clark, meanwhile, sees its season end with a mark of 9-17.

The third matchup of these two teams proved to be as close as the first two - at least for the first half. 

Smith opened up the game by hitting their first three baskets, opening up a 6-2 lead on Amanda Zakoske's layup, but Clark knotted the game at eight on Esther Cohn's (Carrboro, N.C.) hoop with 16:42 to play. 

BelBruno sandwiched a pair of threes around Devon Quattorcchi's fast break layup to give Smith a 16-8 lead, only to see Clark score nine consecutive points.  Kate Minister (Manchester, England) nailed a deep three pointer, and Lily Colley's (Wells, Maine) layup gave Clark their first lead of the game at 17-16.

After Emily Reilly (Marlboro, Mass.) sank a pair of free throws to extend the Cougars' advantage to 23-20, Smith finished the half on an 18-9 run, going up by as many as seven after Sydney Parkmond's basket with 2:55 left in the half. 

The Pioneers carried a 38-32 lead into halftime, and immediately opened up a 42-32 advantage when Ashani Petrizzi put back a miss by Drummond, followed by Drummond's two free throws. 

Ivori Aiken's (Harlem, N.Y.) basket got Clark within seven with 9:55 left, but Libby Dutton's triple, followed by two free throws from Drummond pushed the lead to 12, and Clark got no closer than six the rest of the way.

Ashleigh Condon (Hull, Mass.) led all scorers with 17 points for Clark, followed by 12 from Minister and ten from Megan Grondin (Cumberland, Maine). 

In addition to Drummond and BelBruno, Quattrocchi had a fine all around game with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals and Zakoske added 10 points. 

Smith dominated the glass, outrebounding Clark 45-37 (17 offensive), forced 19 Clark turnovers, and shot 85 percent from the foul line (28-for-33). 

Smith now heads to the semifinals for the first time since 1999, while the Cougars have now dropped their opening round game in each of their last six appearances in the conference tournament.