SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – It was a milestone win for the Western New England College women's basketball team.

Freshman guard Taryn Belowsky (New Haven, CT) scored 13 of her game high 17 points in the second half as the second-seeded Golden Bears defeated third-seeded Nichols 62-51 in a semifinal round contest of The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) Tournament Thursday evening (Feb. 28) at the Alumni Healthful Living Center.

WNEC, which is competing in its first season in the conference, will host Colby-Sawyer at 2:00 p.m. Saturday (March 1) in TCCC championship game. The fourth-seeded Chargers upset top-seeded Endicott 56-45 in the other semifinal game.

Western New England College is playing in a conference championship for the first time in the program's 32-year history. The Golden Bears previously reached the semifinals of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) five times, including the last three seasons.

As they have done all season, senior guards and team co-captains Jen Dabrowski (Plainville, CT) and Tiffany DeRosa (Hamden, CT) played key roles in the win.

Dabrowski netted 16 points, including the 1,500th of her career, and grabbed a team high nine rebounds with a pair of steals. DeRosa added 15 points and four rebounds.

Sophomore guard Kailah Al-Darraji (Dover, NH) and freshman center Kelly McCormick (Manchester, CT) each had eight rebounds. Al-Darraji also had five assists.

Western New England College (18-9) held an 11-point lead at 19-8 at the 8:24 mark of the opening half before taking a 28-21 advantage at intermission.

WNEC held an eight-point cushion at 38-30 with 15 minutes left in the contest before the Bison rallied cutting the margin to a point twice at 47-46 and 49-48 with 5:20 remaining. The visitors suffered a key blow when junior guard MaryLynn Skarzenski (Woodbridge, NJ) injured her ankle with her team down by four points (52-48) with 2:49 left. She didn't return to the game.

Western New England College made only 2-of-6 free throws in the opening half, but came through when needed making eight charity shots in the final 45.3 seconds.

Nichols had three players in double figures led by sophomore guard Curtia Humbert (Bridgeport, CT) with 12 points. She also dished out four assists and blocked a pair of shots.

Senior guard Kristina Weasel (Wakefield, RI) contributed 10 points while freshman forward Michele Guertin (Chicopee, MA) had a double-double off the bench with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bison (20-7) also saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end. Ironically, WNEC was the last team to beat Nichols 72-69 on January 31 in Dudley, Massachusetts.