The weekend moved the Jeffs into a tie for seventh place in the conference standings with the Cardinals. Amherst opened up the weekend with a 51-39 win over visiting Wesleyan on Friday night. The game would mark the first time that the Jeffs played in LeFrak since a Jan. 19 clash with Middlebury College.
"It was a boost to be at home after being on the road so much," said Amherst quad-captain Sarah Walker '03. "Plus, we were just tired of losing."
Although the Amherst defense held the Wesleyan scorers to 19 percent shooting from the floor, the story of the night was the Amherst offense. Several Jeffs unloaded on the Cardinals, led by Walker's game-high 18 points. Sarah Bergman '04 locked in a double-double, with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
The game didn't go Amherst's way for the first eight minutes of play. But, the Jeffs ran away with the ball halfway through the first frame, going on a 12-0 run against the flustered Cardinals.
The unanswered challenge gave Amherst the lead, capped by back-to-back-to-back three-pointers from Marissa McGuire '04 quad-captain Hallison Putnam '02 and Shannon Russell '04. All told, Amherst led by as many as 12 points during the first half.
Wesleyan changed its strategy in the second half, reserving many of their shots for behind the arc. But the Cardinals lost on their gamble and went 0-for-8 from downtown. Meanwhile, Wesleyan found themselves on the deficient end of a 44-38 rebounding margin.
"We had been having pretty tough practices all week, just scrimmaging and working hard," said Walker.
"And, we really wanted to show some results for all that work."
The next day, Amherst took the court against Connecticut College, a haphazard team that held a 1-16 record, winless in the NESCAC. The Jeffs were not sympathetic and handed Conn a 74-54 loss that dropped the Camels to 1-17, while moving the Jeffs above .500 for the first time in two weeks.
The afternoon game also marked senior day for Putnam, Amherst's lone graduating player.
"Hally played awesome in her last home game," Walker said. "The fans who were there to watch her really gave her a nice farewell."
Against the Camels, Putnam poured in six points and passed to her teammates for a game-high five assists. Three of Putnam's points came at a pivotal point in the game.
After trading buckets with Conn for the first 13 minutes of play, Amherst announced its presence with authority via a 10-0 run, capped by a long three-pointer from Putnam at the 4:20 mark.
After the Putnam trey, the Jeffs advanced to a 12-point lead via a pair of quad-captain Brooke Diamond '03 foul shots following an offensive putback.
But on Amherst's last possession before the halftime break, Conn's Mary Bushnell picked off a long pass and hurled the ball towards the Amherst basket with under a second left. The buzzer-beater was good, nudging the score to 35-26 in favor of Amherst at the break.
The second half opened up with a three-pointer from Russell that pushed the Jeff lead to double digits. The Jeffs would never lead by less than 10 points for the rest of the half and ran to a 22-point lead in the game's waning minutes when freshman Kate Herlihy drilled a jumper from the top of the key.
Russell led the Jeffs with a game-high 15 points and sophomore Caitlin Farell added 11 points of her own as the sixth man. Diamond notched eight points and tied her career-high 11 boards in the outing, while Walker drained seven points and 10 rebounds on the afternoon.
"Having two legitimate conference wins, especially against Wesleyan, definitely improved our morale and hopefully earned us a bit more respect in NESCAC," said Walker.
The Jeffs will turn their thoughts to their upcoming conference matchups at Bowdoin and Colby Colleges on Friday and Saturday.
Bowdoin is currently atop the NESCAC, with an 18-1 record overall and a 6-1 mark in conference play. Colby is just above Amherst, with a sixth-place 9-13 (3-4) record.
"Maine's always a tough trip because of all the traveling and Bowdoin and Colby have been doing really well this year," said Walker. "However, with these past two wins and the fact that we are going in as the underdogs, I think we have the momentum we need to win."