On Friday against WNEC the Jeffs wasted no time pouncing on the visiting Golden Bears, jumping out to an early 9-0 lead that was never once in jeopardy. The play of the game occurred midway through the first half when senior quad-captain guard Mike Salerno laid out for a loose ball, then while still lying on the floor, tossed the ball over his head down court to a wide-open Brandon Jones '08 who finished with a slam.
By the end of the first half, Amherst had a commanding 49-31 lead, and was able to turn the game over to its reserves. Every single Amherst player was able to see the floor and 11 of them tallied points. The reserves made the most of their valuable playing time, extending the Jeffs' margin of victory to 92-56 by the time the final whistle blew.
Quad-captain forward Dan Wheeler '07 led the Jeffs statistically with 16 points in 16 minutes of play, while junior guard Andrew Olson was also brilliant, notching 10 points and eight assists, moving into fifth on Amherst's all-time career assists ladder.
Saturday brought more of the same against Springfield in the PVC Championship. After playing a classic game against Amherst in the PVC last year, the Pride, having lost their all-time leading scorer Derek Yvon to graduation, were outclassed by the Jeffs. Once again Amherst was able to bolt to an early lead, going up 10-2 in just under four minutes. The rest of the half was touch-and-go with Springfield cutting the lead to six with fewer than seven minutes to play in the half. Then, a stretch of absolutely stellar play by senior quad-captain guard Tim McLaughlin put the Jeffs on an 11-0 run to close out the half. A pair of McLaughlin's trademark steals led to quick baskets on the fast break. McLaughlin closed out the half with 12 points, three steals, three rebounds and four assists.
Building off a 17-point margin and McLaughin's spark, the Jeffs cruised for the remainder of the contest, eventually tallying a 92-51 victory. Once again, every single Amherst player saw time, with 12 players managing to score. McLaughlin finished with 19 points on 9-13 shooting and four steals, and is now averaging over 2.5 steals per game.
The team was also impressed with the play of two of their highly-recruited first-years. Guard Stephen Wheeler scored 12 points in just 13 minutes of play over the weekend and guard D.J. Carcieri continued to do an excellent job spelling Olson and Salerno to run the point. "It was good to see Steve and DJ attacking the hoop and getting on the glass," said center Kevin Hopkins '08. "Steve's slashing to the hoop combined with his outside shot can make him a very good player as he matures."
While the young players have certainly shown promise, it is likely that the Jeffs will have to begin shortening their bench as the non-conference competition gets tougher. Last night Amherst took on an MIT team in Cambridge that was ranked in the top few teams in the Northeast region last season.
The challenges will get even tougher this weekend, as Amherst takes on Brandeis University this Saturday in LeFrak Gymnasium. Brandeis is currently receiving votes for the national top-25. The Judges are 9-0 on the season, including a 99-89 victory over a talented Tufts University squad that gave Amherst all it could handle in last year's NCAA Sweet-16.
The Judges are led by junior forward Steve DeLuca who is averaging 12.1 points per game and junior guard Kwame Graves-Fulgham who averages over six assists and nine points a game and hails from Amherst, Mass. Should the Jeffs overcome the Judges they will still have a long way to go before making it to the NESCAC schedule unscathed.
Most notably, the team will make a trip down to Texas to play a perennially strong team in Trinity (Tex.) University on New Year's Eve. The Jeffs have not had great success playing far from home in the last few years. The last two seasons, the team's first loss has occurred on the road in early January.
Last season the team's first loss came against Occidental College in California, and the year before that a trip to Ewing, NJ., resulted in a loss to The College of New Jersey. If Amherst beats Trinity, then the only remaining game on the non-conference schedule that looks like it might cause any problems is the annual non-conference game against Williams College, which will be held at Williams on Jan. 6. Although Williams has had a rough start to the season-going 3-4 and losing to teams such as hapless Framingham State University-the nature of the rivalry between the two teams mandates that the Jeffs keep it marked on their calendar.
If the Jeffs make it to the NESCAC season undefeated, they should be the prohibited favorites to win the conference. Already ranked second in the country according to d3hoops.com, the Jeffs would also stand a good chance of taking over the top spot in the rankings-a position they have never held-should currently top-ranked Wooster College fall. Be sure to make it down to LeFrak Gymnasium this Saturday to watch the team battle Brandeis as they continue on their bid to make a second consecutive Final Four.
NESCAC Notes
Bates College continues to make the most noise in the NESCAC aside from the Jeffs. The Bobcats have used an impressive 7-0 start to move all the way to number 17 in national polls. Aside from a close call in a 61-60 win over rival Bowdoin College, Bates has the trio of Zak Ray, Rob Stockwell and Bryan Wholey to easily outpace their opponents. Trinity College has only suffered one loss, riding the play of Russ and Pat Martin (no relation), to a 7-1 start.