A 22-point game from Ally Landau helped the Smith College basketball team advance past Gustavus Adolphus, 61-50, in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division 3 women’s tournament on Saturday.

The Pioneers (30-2) trailed 16-13 after the first quarter, but outscored the Gusties the following three quarters – with a 14-6 fourth quarter the highlight of the bunch— as Smith punched their ticket to the Final Four for the third straight season.

“This is an unmatched feeling,” Landau said. “Ever since I came here, this is what I was looking for, getting to the Final Four and [to] live through these moments.”

Landau shot 7-for-15 from the field for the Pioneers and nearly collected a double-double with nine rebounds. Smith also got 11 points from Jazmyn Washington and 10 points from both Jane Loo and Ella Sylvester.

The Gusties entered the matchup with just one loss and despite finishing Saturday with eight different point-getters, it was Smith claiming the victory.

“Obviously, just a great team we played today,” Pioneers head coach Lynn Hersey said. “Lot of seniors, lot of veteran players in their program. We have a lot of respect for well-coached and really gritty players and this whole weekend we were faced with that. It’s about bringing out the best in each other and I think both games were high-level basketball and I think that’s what playing in the NCAA Tournament is about. Hats off to them, congratulate them on a stellar season.

“In terms of our team, I just have such gratitude for this group,” Hersey said. “We came in losing 68 percent of our offense and over 50 percent of our rebounding and assists and steals from last year, which is a lot to replace. This group just quickly dug-in to making sure they were connected and understood their roles and had the habits that it takes to get to this level. I’m just super impressed by all of them and excited for the journey that we have ahead of us.”

Rachel Kawiecki led the Gusties with 12 points and was their only player to surpass double figures.

Team stats finished almost identical as Smith trailed in field-goal percentage (43-42) and free-throw percentage (71-66), but held the edge in 3-point percentage (38-11).

The Pioneers will face Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the national semifinal round next Thursday in Salem, Virgina.

Sweet 16, Friday

Smith 53, Bowdoin 47 – For the third consecutive season, the Pioneers advanced to the Elite Eight following a huge 53-47 victory over previously undefeated Bowdoin on the road in the NCAA Division III Sweet 16 on Friday night. A season ago, Smith traveled to Brunswick, Maine to face Bowdoin in the Elite Eight and won 52-47. Nearly one full year to the date later, the Pioneers returned to the Polar Bears’ home gym to hand them another postseason defeat by almost the exact same score.

It wasn’t pretty for much of the contest, but Smith executed in the third quarter and used an 18-8 advantage in the frame to pull ahead and stay there the rest of the way.

“We just grinded,” Hersey said. “It was a game that had some interesting runs for both teams. A lot of missed shots, but a lot of really great defense. You win in a variety of ways in the NCAA Tournament, and today was definitely a defensive battle. Proud of our team for pulling this one out.”

The first half witnessed poor shooting from both sides, but especially Smith as it only converted on 29 percent of its field goal attempts through 20 minutes of action to head into halftime down 22-20. That all changed in the third quarter thanks to Hannah Martin. The sophomore guard took the game over out of the break, scoring 10 straight points for the Pioneers to help jump them ahead 34-27 – their largest lead of the night at the time.

Martin was 0-for-3 in the first half, but made five field goals as part of her 12-point quarter that put Smith in front 38-30 headed to the fourth.

“I was definitely frustrated in the first half,” Martin said. “I had a few turnovers, a few missed layups. I take a lot of pride in leading my team, not only just in playmaking but in scoring. I know that’s something I can bring to the table. So at halftime, coach had a conversation with me and kind of just sparked a fire. I knew that if we wanted to win I needed to step up.”

From a head-coaching perspective, Hersey felt that Martin had a favorable matchup given her rounded skill set as a guard. But Martin had only taken three shots despite playing the majority of the first two quarters.

Something had to change, and it did.

“We had a conversation in the locker room about how we needed to move the ball, get touches to different players and capitalize on certain matchups,” Hersey said. “Hannah, between her craft and her speed, she’s a lot to handle. She just did a really great job of taking advantage of her opportunities and getting hot for us. It settled our group.”

The teams traded blows for the first five minutes of the fourth until a quick 5-0 run – sparked by a Jane Loo triple and capped with an Ally Landau mid-range jumper – catapulted Smith up 45-35 with just over five minutes remaining. From there it was just a matter of the Pioneers hanging on.

They didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way, but they leaned on their terrific defense and clutch free-throw shooting (8-for-10 in the final minute) to send them through to a national quarterfinal. Bowdoin (29-1) shot 32 percent for the game and scored their second-fewest points (47) of the season.

“We had to focus on transition defense, that was a big part of being able to hold them to the point total that we thought we would need to hold them to,” Hersey said. “Our team executed on that front. They had four transition points the whole game. We did some things on ball screens that I thought slowed them down and created different shots for them… It was a really thoughtful game in terms of how our players approached the game plan and the execution from who we needed to focus on from the Bowdoin side.”