New England College women's basketball downed the Johnson State College Badgers 76-61 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play Saturday afternoon. With the win the Pilgrims improve to 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the NAC. The loss drops the Badgers to 3-6 on the season and 3-2 in NAC play.

The two teams would battle closely through the opening half as NEC would keep Johnson from scoring a field goal for the opening eight minutes of the game but just lead by one up 11-10 at the 12 minute mark.   Johnson would grab their first lead of the game thanks to a layup by Nicole Menard at the midway point of the half. 

The teams would go on to exchange leads 13 times over a seven minute span before NEC would use a 12-2 run to close out the half and give the Pilgrims the 42-32 halftime lead. 

NEC would never trail in the second half as Johnson would open the half scoring the first five points to get within five but that is as close as the Badgers would get.  The Pilgrims would lead by as many as 11 throughout the second half finishing the game shooting 43% from the field while holding the Badgers to just 31%.

Leading the way for NEC was Taylor Burgess who finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists.  NEC's Marjani Lillard was the only other Pilgrim in double-figures finishing with 11 points, while Kiley Williams led the way on the board pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds.

Johnson was led by Brittany Robertson who finished with a team-high 18 points. Domonique Carter-Stanley chipped in 14 points, while Sarah Voorhis grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

NEC is on break until Tuesday, Jan. 6 when they travel to take on NAC opponent Green Mountain College.  Johnson is off until Tuesday, Jan. 6 as well when the Badgers will host non-conference opponent Plymouth State University.