It started with the most innocuous shot, but most dramatic rallies usually do. With 3:44 remaining in Friday night's Little Three and NESCAC clash at Wesleyan University, Amherst guard Shannon Russell '04 came off a pick at the top of the key and launched a high-arcing three-pointer. Russell's rainbow hit the front and back rims on its way to going down. It was an innocuous shot, only her second three-pointer of the evening, but it was the spark the Jeffs desperately needed, trailing by seven points, 53-46, with fewer than four minutes remaining.

On Wesleyan's ensuing possession, Cardinal first-year Ashley Elia, who has been a thorn in the Jeffs' sidee teams' this season, put back a Shaleen Bowman miss to extend the Wesleyan lead back to six before Co-captain Hallison Putnam '02 responded with a three-pointer of her own. Putnam's three-pointer, which came from almost the exact same spot where she hit the game-winner with 2.8 seconds left against Wesleyan two years earlier, cut the Cardinal lead in half, before a Wesleyan offensive foul on the next possession gave the ball back to Amherst.

As if the five Jeffs on the court were taking turns playing the hero, Co-captain Charlotte Taylor '01 came up with the big play on Amherst's next trip, sinking her only three-point attempt of the game from the left corner with just over two minutes left to tie the game at 55.

After a Wesleyan miss, an Amherst miss and a Wesleyan turnover, the ball went back to the Jeffs with just over two minutes to play, with the ball in the hands of Sara Bozorg '03. Bozorg,after milking a dozen seconds off the clock, broke for the right baseline, before cutting for the basket and slipping a lay-up in between Wesleyan forwards Allyson Miller and Whitney Ebbeson, putting Amherst ahead 57-55. The only Jeff on the court who did not score down the stretch, forward Sarah Walker '03, did not need to, coming up with the defensive play of the game on the Cardinals' next trip down-court. After a pick on the left elbow, the ball was worked over to a wide-open Elia, who had hit four of her five shot attempts on the evening. Elia's sixth attempt never had a chance as Walker rotated over perfectly to post her fourth block of the evening, and the rebound found its way into Russell's hands. Putnam added a free throw with just under 11 seconds left to extend the lead to three, and Wesleyan's Amy Posocco had a game-tying three-pointer rattle off the back rim at the buzzer, giving the Jeffs the dramatic come-from-behind win.

"For a young team to exhibit this kind of confidence leaves me speechless," said Head Coach Billy McBride, as the Jeffs won a game in which they had trailed late in the second half for the fourth time this season. "We just never give up."

The win over Wesleyan, Amherst's 13th in a row over its Little Three rival, completed a season sweep for the Jeffs. Along with Amherst's season split with arch-rival Williams College and Wesleyan's 75-65 win at Williams at the beginning of February, the win locked up the Jeffs' 2nd-straight outright Little Three title, a repeat only accomplished once before in Amherst history.

"There comes a point where you run out of things to say," said McBride. "This team just has the will to win. We've been in every situation, and we've responded."

The emotional win took a lot out of the Jeffs' sails, however, and it took most of the first half of Saturday's game at Connecticut College for the visitors to get their wind back. The second half would be the difference, however, as Russell scored 17 points after halftime, Walker added 12 of her 15 in the final frame, and the Jeffs used a 23-6 run to break open what had been a 39-39 game, eventually prevailing by a 71-56 final.

In all, the weekend sweep improved the Jeffs to 19-3, the best record through 22 games in the 24-year history of the program. The wins, which also upped Amherst's conference record to 6-1, pushed the Jeffs into a three-way tie for first place in the league with Bowdoin and Colby Colleges and assured Amherst of no worse than the fourth-seed in the upcoming NESCAC tournament, which means a guaranteed home game for the Jeffs.

Amherst, however, is still very much alive to finish first in the league with back-to-back showdowns this weekend against Bowdoin and Colby.

The Polar Bears and White Mules effectively nixed Amherst's post-season hopes last year with a sweep of the Jeffs' weekend in Maine, and if the Jeffs can return the favor, they will earn the top seed in the seven-team NESCAC draw, along with a first-round bye and the right to host the semifinals and finals.

Friday's game against Bowdoin is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Saturday afternoon's Senior Day finale against Colby is set for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off.