Down by a point with one second left on the clock, the Amherst women’s basketball team inbounded the ball. The final play was supposed to find a guard, who was going to take the last shot. Instead, the penultimate throw was tipped by Amherst’s opponent, Endicott College. Sophomore forward Samantha Swensen grabbed the ball about 10 feet beyond the three-point arc. With no previous three-point attempts this season, and with two Endicott players defending her, Swensen threw up a shot. It was good. The Jeffs won by two, improving their record to 11-0.

For Swensen, the buzzer-beater was a blast from the past. As a fifth-grader she traveled with her Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, the Angels, to Florida for the national tournament. Her team was down by one with three seconds to play. Though she had never taken the ball up the court, Swensen did so this time. She recalls that she “threw it pretty far for a fifth-grader” to an open teammate, who put up the winning basket. Swensen’s team advanced to the round of 16.

While these are special memories for Swensen, making last-second shots has become a bit of a habit for the Rockaway Beach, N.Y. native. Four games after Amherst defeated Endicott, the then-14-0 and 22nd-ranked Jeffs took on then-12-0 and 14th-ranked Tufts University in the first conference game for either squad. To finish the game, Swensen made a play that is more her style. She converted a layup as time expired to give Amherst a 64-62 victory.

Perhaps even more important than making clutch shots, Swensen has been a consistent player for the Jeffs throughout her career. Building on her NESCAC Rookie of the Year campaign in the 2006-07 season, she has been dominant this year. She leads Amherst in points with 222—though her only three-point attempt remains the game-winner against Endicott—and entered this week first in the NESCAC with a .559 field goal percentage.

Swensen’s basketball roots stretch back to the first grade. With her dad as a coach, she played on her St. Camillus church team until the eighth grade with some of her best friends. Though she is now a post player, she played guard at Poly Prep High School. “We had a pretty tall team,” admitted the 6’0” forward. She became a post player only after joining the Amherst squad, and it is now her favorite position.

Playing the post is not the only thing Swensen likes about Amherst. She was introduced to the school by close family friend and next-door neighbor, Ray Corrigan ’06. A former guard on the men’s basketball team, Corrigan recommended that Swensen look at Amherst, and she followed his suggestion. “I came during Homecoming and loved it,” said Swensen. “The atmosphere was great and the campus was beautiful.”

Since enrolling at Amherst, Swensen’s interactions with her teammates have made her young career an enjoyable experience. “I love the team; we’re best friends,” she said. “We are a lot closer than most teams. We spend a lot of time together and have great team chemistry. It’s been a big factor in our success.”

After posting the program’s best-ever start to a season, and setting a school record for the longest win streak, the 18-1 Jeffs will look to continue that success as they close out the season with five conference games. With Swensen’s consistent play, especially in the clutch, Amherst is poised to finish strong in this already-memorable season.