The men’s basketball team began their Thanksgiving break with two wins in the Ken Wright ’52 Memorial Invitational en route to the team’s eighth consecutive tournament title. After defeating Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) 85-52, the Jeffs won the tournament with a 100-97 win over Skidmore College. The 10th-ranked team played at home again last night, beating Lasell College 104-77 to extend their season record to a perfect 4-0.

In the MCLA game, senior co-captain Brian Baskauskas led the Jeffs in scoring with 20 points while Glenn Wong ’09 and Taylor Barrise ’12 each added 13. Thirteen Jeffs scored in the game, which highlighted the depth of the team in their dominating win.

The Skidmore game was decidedly more competitive. Though they lead 71-54 halfway through the second half, they had to hold off the revitalized Thoroughbreds in the last ten minutes. Amherst’s opponents improved their field goal percentage from 35.5 percent to 55.3 percent after halftime. Skidmore had a 16-2 scoring run towards the end of the game and outscored the Jeffs 63-52 in the second half but never regained their early lead. Amherst emerged with a slim three-point victory. Six Jeffs had double-digit points in the game, and Kurt Bennett ’11 and Jeff Holmes ’12 both had 12 rebounds.

Last night, the team squared off against Lasell at home and never let the Lancers take the lead. Baskauskas contributed 21 points and Steven Wheeler ’10 added 20 to lead the Jeffs to an impressive showing. Glenn Wong scored 16 points, hitting all of his shots. Despite a narrow lead of 57-52 at the half, Amherst pulled away in the last 20 minutes to finish with a decisive 27-point win.

The Jeffs have steadily improved their shot percentage in their four season games, scoring 41.4 percent against Curry College, 47.5 percent against MCLA, 50.8 percent against Skidmore and an impressive 60.3 percent against Lasell. Barrise, who averages 10 points per game, said the key to such offensive improvement is the incorporation of all the Jeffs.

“We have six frosh this year so the early part of the season was spent getting everyone on the same page with the offense. The older guys did a great job helping us adjust and the results are starting to show. The biggest difference from the start of the season is in the fluidity of our offense; everyone is starting to buy into the system and we are playing very well with one another,” said Barrise.

The team is optimistic about this season, which will be very competitive over Interterm when conference play begins. “We’ve gotten better each game and are heading in the right direction going into conference play,” said Barrise.