BENNINGTON, Vt. — The second half may not have been ideal for the Southern Vermont College women's basketball team Thursday night at the Mountaineer Athletic Center, but it was good enough for SVC to defeat Newbury College 65-48 in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action, setting a new program win record in the process.

The Mountaineers improve their season record to 15-9 (13-4 NECC), surpassing the 14-9 mark set by the 1993-94 team in its inaugural season. Newbury slides to 7-17 on the year and 6-11 in league play.

Southern Vermont also locked up the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Conference postseason tournament, needing to wait for Saturday's results to see who will come to the MAC on Tuesday for a first round playoff game.

SVC was led by junior captain Amber Flagg (Windsor, Connecticut) who dropped 18 points to go with six rebounds and a game-best seven assists; those helpers make her the new all-time career assists leader for Southern Vermont with 249. Classmate Sarah McDonald (Cohoes, New York) followed with 14 points and seven boards while fellow junior Turquoia Johnson (Montgomery Village, Maryland) added 13 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Junior Javasha White (Schenectady, New York) pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds in the win.

Nighthawk junior captain Katelyn Roeser (Nashua, New Hampshire) tied Flagg's game-highs of 18 points and seven assists while classmate Jovanna Sandifer (Boston, Massachusetts) recorded 13 points and three rebounds. Freshman Destiny Spears (Arnold, Massachusetts) grabbed a night-best 11 rebounds, and sophomore Brittany Beals (Lawrence, Massachusetts) had eight points and four boards off the NC bench.

The Mountaineers shot 37.1 percent from the floor for the night (26-70) while holding Newbury to a 29.9 field goal percentage (20-67). SVC had a 58-39 advantage on the glass, using offensive caroms for a 12-3 edge in second-chance points. Southern Vermont also outscored the Nighthawks in the paint by a 40-26 margin.

Newbury scored six unanswered points early on to take a 6-2 lead, the last three coming when Roeser stepped back beyond the arc and knocked down a three-pointer. McDonald cut the deficit when she got a layup to go while being fouled, hitting the free throw for the old-fashioned three-point play. Sandifer then drilled another Nighthawk trey in the right corner for a 9-6 visitors' lead, but that's when Southern Vermont went on top for good with a 15-0 run, culminating when Flagg made the most of an open look from three on the right side of the perimeter.

Southern Vermont closed out the first half with consistent success on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 44.4 percent from the field to take a 40-16 lead to the break. Flagg had 11 points in the opening 20 minutes while Johnson followed with another 10 for the hosts.

Hard-pressed to carry its momentum into the second period, SVC saw Newbury trim the lead with a 9-2 run through the first eight minutes of the half. A Flagg and-one play pushed it to a 51-28 Southern Vermont advantage, but the Nighthawks then dropped 11 unanswered points to keep themselves in the game.

Mountaineer freshman Danielle Simmons (Rensselaer, New York) ended the SVC scoring drought with a banked shot off the glass from the top of the key, just to see Roeser respond with a layup on the ensuing possession to make it a 53-41 ballgame. The Newbury junior then cut from the left side to the middle of the lane, getting a floater to go to cut it to a 10-point contest. The visitors could not make it to a single-digit deficit, however, as Southern Vermont scored the next seven points to pad its lead en route to the 65-48 win and season sweep of the Nighthawks.

SVC concludes the regular season on Saturday with a 1 p.m. NECC tilt at top-standing Regis College while Newbury hosts Wheelock College at 2 p.m. the same day for its season finale.