Although the Jeffs failed to procure the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament given to the winner of the NESCAC Tournament, the selection committee did reward Amherst for their superb regular season with an at-large bid and a first-round bye. This Saturday at 7:00, Amherst will host the winner of Thursday's first-round tilt between Lasell and Southern Vermont Colleges. Amherst defeated Lasell 94-65 earlier this year.
"We are happy with our seed in that we received a bye and a home game," said tri-captain Steve Zieja '03. "We understand that from here on out, every team that is left is high caliber so it doesn't really matter who we play. We simply have to win."
Given the two schools' storied rivalry and evenly-matched squads, Sunday's NESCAC Championship showdown between Amherst and Williams had all the makings of an all-time classic game, and that is exactly what the capacity crowd at LeFrak witnessed.
Williams took a slight lead early in the game and maintained their roughly six-point advantage for much of the first half. However, with just over five minutes to play in the opening half, the Ephs caught fire, making four consecutive field goals in a two-minute stretch, three being three-pointers. All of a sudden, the Jeffs saw their relatively benign deficit of 28-22 swell to a seemingly insurmountable 42-22 margin. The Jeff faithful sat stunned as the sizable contingent from Williams made known their glee at the "defectors'" daunting predicament.
Williams Head Coach Dave Paulsen should be given credit for helping to engineer his team's impressive 14-0 run. By inserting sharpshooter Tim Folan in the 4-spot, Paulsen went with a small lineup to try and give his team open looks around the perimeter.
"It was a chess match," said Head Coach Dave Hixon '75. "We were big and they were small. They made five threes and we did nothing in the paint."
Junior swingman Adam Harper drained an impressive three-pointer from well behind the three-point line at the end of the first half to cut the Eph lead to 15, but things still looked pretty bleak for the Jeffs heading into intermission.
Williams shot an unbelievable 7-13 from three-point range in the first half.
Early in the second half, Amherst had four different possessions in which they could have cut the Eph lead to single digits but were unable to convert. The Williams lead swelled back up to 16 before Amherst would finally make a game of it.
With four minutes to play, Amherst embarked on an 11-2 run which brought the Jeffs within one possession of changing the game's outcome. Zieja ignited the comeback with his only triple of the game, bringing the score to 66-58.
Following Zieja's cue, shooting guard John Donovan '04 provided some late-game heroics of his own, grabbing the rebound off of a Jaris Cole miss and taking the ball the length of the court to make it a 68-64 game with 1:56 remaining. On Amherst's following possession, Donovan converted a transition baseline jumper while getting fouled, so the shooting guard went to the charity stripe with an opportunity to make the game a one-point affair.
Donovan missed the free-throw, however, and Pat Fitzsimons '03 fouled his Williams counterpart Drew DeMuth in a struggle for the rebound. DeMuth canned both of his free-throws, but Harper quickly answered in kind for Amherst when Williams sent him to the line.
Up two with just under a minute to play, Williams held on to the ball for nearly the full 35 seconds allotted by the shot clock before Ben Coffin nailed a clutch mid-range turn-around jumper to keep the Ephs up four.
With nine seconds remaining in the game, Zieja hit a crucial jumper to once again put Amherst within striking distance. The Jeffs quickly fouled DeMuth, but the Williams big man ignored the vocal crowd and sank both of his free throws to seal the game and the championship for Williams.
Despite the tough loss, the Jeffs will look to build on their commendable performance at the end of the second half. "I believe that our play in the second half of the Williams game will carry over into our first tournament game," said Zieja. "I have no doubt that we will use that loss as motivation, something that will fuel the fire in what we hope will be a long post-season run."
In addition to that costly 14-0 Eph run in the first half, the Lord Jeffs were plagued by turnovers and a poor performance from their bench. Amherst had a seven-to-16 assist-to-turnover ratio, and the Jeff bench was only able to muster four points on Sunday. Key reserve Andrew Schiel '06E, arguably one of the most talented players on the team, went 0-5 from the floor on Sunday and 1-16 throughout the NESCAC Tournament.
Zieja led all scorers with 23 points and yesterday was named NESCAC Player of the Year in recognition of his phenomenal season. Harper had another monster game as well, contributing 14 points and a game- and career-high 15 rebounds. Harper was just named NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year and joins Fitzsimons on the All-NESCAC second team.
Benjamin Coffin led the Ephs with 22 points to cap off his sensational weekend of play.
Amherst defeated Wesleyan University for the third time this season, 87-73, in the semifinal game on Saturday.