Coming into Friday night's game, everyone knew that the Jeffs would have their hands full with the Jumbos-a NESCAC foe that Amherst had already seen twice this season. The first match-up came in the final weekend of the regular season. The Jeffs cruised to an easy 99-70 victory in which senior co-captain John Bedford was unstoppable, scoring 29 points, just a deuce shy of his career high. Part deux of the rivalry occurred in the NESCAC Championship, and was a far closer affair. The Jumbos went inside to big men Dan Martin, a first-team all-NESCAC selection, and Jake Weitzen, who punished the Jeffs all night. Co-captain John Casnocha played the role of hero for Amherst however, nailing a three in the last minute to give the Jeffs a two-point edge after trailing for most of the second stanza. Ryan O'Keefe penetrated for a lay-up to tie the game, sending it to overtime. In the extra period the Jeffs were unstoppable, however, winning by eight.
Anyone who saw the NESCAC Championship game could have predicted a tight game in the Sweet 16, but no one could have possibly prognosticated the events that would occur in front of a capacity-and-then-some crowd of 2,200 in LeFrak Gymnasium.
Amherst controlled a narrow edge for most of the opening frame and clung to a 35-34 lead at the half, led by a great offensive output upfront from center Dan O'Shea '07 and forward Dan Wheeler '07 who had eight and 10 points, respectively. Brian Kumf, an offensive non-factor for the Jumbos in the first two contests began establishing himself, scoring six points on 3-5 shooting for Tufts, while point guard David Shepard had eight at intermission.
Neither team could escape the stalemate in the beginning of the second half as the lead continuously changed sides. At the nine-minute mark however, the Jumbos managed to put just a smidgeon of breathing room between themselves and the Jeffs. With less than four minutes to play Amherst made their run, cutting the lead to one at 68-67 after Bedford drove to the basket and drew a foul for a three-point play. Three missed free-throws by the Jeffs allowed the Jumbos to maintain their slimmest of advantages before Martin sank two foul shots to put Tufts up by four with just 26 ticks on the game clock
No amount of hyperbole can justify what followed. In what can only be described as the greatest 26 seconds in Amherst basketball history, sophomore sensation Andrew Olson bolted into the lane for a quick lay-up, cutting the lead to two. A quick foul sent Weitzen, an 80-percent free-throw shooter, to the line for two shots. If he made them both the Jeffs' season would have been over. As a packed house stood on pins-and-needles Weitzen's first shot rimmed out, leaving just the tiniest amount of hope for Amherst.
After Weitzen made his second shot, the Jeffs had 15 seconds to score a three and prevent their season from dead-ending in LeFrak in the Sweet 16 for the second-consecutive year. Olson took the inbounds and charged down court. As Bedford, Casnocha, Wheeler and Matt Goldsmith '08-all superb three-point shooters-circled the arc setting picks for one another, Olson could not find enough daylight to pass to one of them. With Shepard sticking to Olson like white on rice, a screen by Bedford gave Olson just enough room to launch an off-balance prayer as time expired, which miraculously went in. "The Shot" didn't even touch the rim, it hit nothing-but-net in an image that will be burned into the collective consciousness of the Amherst student body for quite some time. The scene has been recounted verbally, reenacted physically and replayed numerous tims from a video that can be downloaded from the Amherst Athletics website.
"Well, there were certainly a lot of things that crossed my mind in those 15 seconds, but my first thought was to run the play," said Olson. "I had the choice to either go off Wheeler's screen or Casnocha's and I chose Cas' side, because he has proven that he can hit the shot when we needed him. That did not go as planned and then it seemed like there was a panic. I decided to give the ball up in case there was a five count and then when I got it back the second time I knew there wasn't much time left. So, then I decided to try and create some space. I found a little seam and thought about getting a foul, and then it was time to shoot. I shot it, it went in and then it had to register that we just tied the game."
Casnocha confessed he was nervous before Olson's prayer was answered. "My thoughts during the play were 'This is an absolute disaster' but they quickly went to pure joy when the shot went in," he said.
The Jumbos looked understandably deflated in the extra period, and ended up losing by a final score of 90-85. "A shot like that is just so devastating to the other team, I knew we could take it home in the overtime," said Goldsmith. Bedford led the way in scoring for the Jeffs with 24 points, while Wheeler was close behind with 22. O'Shea had perhaps his finest performance offensively of the year, scoring 15 on 7-10 shooting. Olson finished with 11 points and seven assists. Kumf had 21 for the Jumbos and Weitzen added 17.
Riding that kind of momentum, one has to feel somewhat sorry for the St. John Fisher College team that had to play Amherst the following evening. The Jeffs grabbed the early lead over the Cardinals and never looked back. Olson broke the single-season school record for assists with his 168th, supplanting Ryan Faulkner '03 at the top of the list. He had 11 dimes on the night to go along with 10 points and four steals and earned Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA All-Sectional Team. Wheeler was also named to the team after dropping a career-high 24 points, including seven three-pointers, against the Cardinals. Bedford had yet another solid game, scoring 15 points and moving into fourth on the Amherst all-time scoring list. He is now just six away from reaching the 1,500-point milestone. More importantly, the Jeffs never broke a sweat in beating the Cardinals 93-70 on the way to the school's second-ever men's basketball Final Four.
The team will play Wittenberg College, the third-ranked team in the nation in the semi finals on March 17 at 6 p.m. Virginia Wesleyan and Illinois Wesleyan Universities will meet in the other semifinal. Wittenberg is a dominating rebounding team, led by the inside presence of 6'9" center Daniel Russ and 6'8" forward Dane Borchers. To compete with Wittenberg, Amherst will need to crash the boards and shoot the lights out. "We know that Wittenberg has two great post players," said O'Shea. "If we can neutralize their post production and can shoot the way we did against St. John Fisher, then I feel very good about our chances in the game."
For the classes of '07 and '06 this will be a return trip to Salem. The team insists that they will not be content with the result of 2004-a loss in the semifinal, to hated Williams College no less. Instead, they believe that they can bring Amherst its third team national championship, joining the 1999 women's tennis squad and the 2003 women's lacrosse team. "Our stated goal all year has been to go to the Final Four and to win a National Championship, so I don't think anyone is satisfied yet," said Casnocha. "I think this team is very close off the court which has helped us go far, more so than the team two years ago. I think we shoot the ball as a team much better than that team did as well."
It was Bedford who captured most precisely what this weekend meant for the team. "Our goal has always been to win a National Championship, so a loss now will really be a disappointment," he said. "Being a senior also adds to the pressure knowing that at any point your career could end. That is why that shot was so huge for our senior class. It gave us a second chance."