With Hixon at 499 career wins, the team started its Interterm set out west, playing at Pomona-Pitzer College. In addition to being an important game for Hixon, it was also the first game back for Ray Corrigan '06, the senior point guard who started during Amherst's run to the Final Four in 2004, but missed the majority of the 2005 season with an ankle injury. The exact amount of playing time that Corrigan would receive, given the emergence of fellow point guard Andrew Olson '08, the 2005 NES-
CAC Rookie of the Year, and the level at which Corrigan would perform was certainly a point of interest coming into the game.
With these multiple distractions and the trip to California to deal with, it is not surprising that the Jeffs came out looking a bit sluggish against the Sagehens, connecting on just one of their first nine field goals. Despite holding the Pomona starters to just 2 of 22 shooting, the Sagehen reserves picked up the slack to lead at the half, 28-20.
Anxious to avoid their first loss of the season and prevent Hixon from having to wait any longer for number 500, the Jeffs picked up the scoring in the second half while maintaining their defensive pressure, holding the Sagehens to just two buckets in the final 10 minutes of regulation, allowing the Jeff squad to come away with a comfortable 62-41 victory.
The Jeffs were led by Olson and senior co-captain forward John Bedford, each of whom filled out the stat sheet: Olson with 14 points and four assists, Bedford with 13 points, seven boards, three assists and five steals. For Corrigan it was an uneventful return to the court, as he logged just three minutes and recorded only a personal foul. He would, however, see more time as the Jeffs ventured into NESCAC competition.
For Hixon, his 500th career win made him just the 17th coach in NCAA Div. III history to reach that plateau. After the win, Hixon was 500-215 in his 29 seasons with the Jeffs, making him the eighth winningest active Div. III coach. Both Hixon and his father Will, a legendary coach at Andover High School, were inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
While it was all celebration that evening, the next night the Jeffs found themselves in a much more melancholy mood. They were handed their first loss of the season by Occidental College. Tiger Sam Betty put on a clinic, posting 30 points and 10 rebounds while teammate Zach Phillips also had a double-double with 16 and 12. Once again Amherst came out sluggish, shooting just 28 percent in the first half, but managed to keep the game close and even took the lead for most of the second half, thanks largely to the brilliant play of Olson and fellow sophomore center Matt Goldsmith. In the end, however, the performance of Betty was enough to put Occidental on top with a 73-68 victory.
Coming back home the Jeffs were anticipating their third emotional game in a row, this time hosting arch-rival Williams in LeFrak Gymnasium. Once again, Amherst came out cold with the shooting touch, but managed to keep Williams close and almost put the Ephs away shortly after the half, building an 18 point margin, but Williams went on a 12-0 run before Goldsmith finally ended the drought with a lay-up and put the icing on a 66-56 victory with one of the more thunderous jams in recent Amherst history-executed with just one hand in classic-tomahawk fashion. Bedford led the Jeffs statistically with 18 points, six caroms and a trio of dishes.
After rolling over Wesleyan University in their NESCAC opener, Amherst lost just their second contest of the season to the Trinity College Bantams in an 88-85 overtime heartbreaker. After the game was virtually knotted at the half, the Jeffs came out blazing in the second session, building up a 15-point advantage before going cold and missing seven consecutive trifectas, enough to allow the Bantams to go on a 15 point run to tie the contest. It was a battle through the last few minutes, but Trinity pulled away in overtime with Michael Hoar's game-winning three-pointer.
Since the Trinity game the Jeffs have been on a roll, rattling off six straight wins, four over NESCAC opponents, with an average margin of victory of 24 points. Just in the past week the squad rattled off less-than-difficult victories against Colby, Bowdoin and Babson Colleges.
NESCAC Notes
The Jeffs' 4-1 record is good enough to place them third in the conference standings. Currently Bates College stands atop the conference with a 6-0 mark, while Trinity is close behind at 5-0. As of Monday evening, the Jeffs are no longer the lone NESCAC team in the national top 25. The Jeffs have been joined by Trinity, who is ranked 25th, while Bates is also receiving votes.