Basketball season is upon us, and already the Lord Jeffs are off and running. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, the Amherst College men’s basketball team played host to three other teams—Hunter, Southern Vermont, and Purchase Colleges—in the seventh annual Ken Wright ’52 Memorial Invitational Tournament. Thanks to solid team play and key individual performances, the Jeffs easily won the tournament, garnering a 2-0 record to start the season.
Amherst opened up the Ken Wright Tournament—and their season—against Hunter on Friday night. On the strength of a 7-2 run, the Jeffs jumped ahead early and never looked back. With the exception of an early 2-2 tie, the Jeffs held the lead for the entire game. First-year Conor Meehan made a splash in his debut, contributing four points, an assist and a steal to a 10-0 run in the middle of the first half. Senior Fletcher Walters also had an impressive first half, leading all scorers with 11 points.
The second half started off with a bang, featuring a trademark Olson-to-Hopkins alley-oop dunk in the opening minutes that set the tone for the rest of the half. With a comfortable lead, Coach David Hixon was able to go deep into his bench. Kurt Bennett ’11 and Billy Butler ’11 and junior walk-on Ben Kaplan all saw time and performed well in their debuts, extending Amherst’s lead. Brandon Jones ’08 led Amherst in scoring with 15, and senior captain Andrew Olson had a game-high 11 assists in limited playing time. When the final buzzer sounded, the score was 103-79 in favor of the hosts.
Saturday saw the Jeffs matched up against the Southern Vermont Mountaineers in the tournament championship. Led by their senior co-captain Nick Harrington, the Mountaineers put up a valiant effort, but they were clearly overmatched by Amherst. Southern Vermont actually jumped out to an early 12-7 lead, but the Jeffs quickly responded with a 25-3 run, building a lead that the Mountaineers could not surmount. The Jeffs went into halftime with a 52-30 lead, and another second-half run put the game far out of reach. The game ended in a 99-54 victory for the Jeffs, who walked away tournament champions.
The tournament-clincher proved to be another showcase of Amherst’s depth, as 14 Amherst players put points on the scoreboard. Jones once again led the way with 13 points, despite only playing 14 minutes. Forward Steve Wheeler ’10 and center Kevin Hopkins ’08 added 11 and 12 points, respectively. Four Jeffs tallied seven points each, one of whom was forward Brian Baskauskas ’09, who had two blocks and three steals.
At tournament’s end, three Amherst players received honors. Jones was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and Olson and Hopkins were named to the All-Tournament Team. Though the competition Amherst faced may have been overmatched, the 2-0 start still bodes well for the rest of the year.
“I thought the first two games were useful in that we got to find out about ourselves a little bit,” said Baskauskas. “We saw who can do what individually and who plays well together.” The Jeffs have certainly played well thus far, but as Baskauskas also commented, they are still “nowhere near [their] potential.”
Tournament MVP Jones also weighed in on the early-season performances: “Naturally, I’m glad we won. The Ken Wright Invitational isn’t the toughest of tournaments, but I think we executed well. We still have to collectively hammer out a few team concepts, but everyone does this time of year. I think we are right where ought to be.”
The Jeffs kept the momentum of their winning streak going, and improved their perfect record to 3-0 with a 99-49 victory over Emmanuel College on Tuesday night. Chalking up a game-high 22 points, Jones led Amherst to an impressive scoring advantage. Guard Glenn Wong ’09 also contributed to defense and made a pair of three-pointers. First-year Billy Butler rounded out the Jeffs’ final score to 99 points with a pair of free throws. The Jeffs next face Westfield State at Springfield College on Friday night.