The women’s basketball team seems to be making a statement. The Lord Jeffs opened their season with a five game winning streak and won four of those contests by more than 20 points. The team kicked off the Amherst Invitational with an 87-17 victory over Pine Manor College in its third season game. They won the Invite the next day, defeating Lehman College by 23 points and then trounced Pioneer Valley rival Mt. Holyoke College at home to win 76-39.
“I think starting out the season with five blow outs has given us confidence. However, we know that we need to come into every game playing like it’s a national championship. We are confident that if we do that, we will be extremely successful this year,” said rookie guard Shannon Finucane ’12.
It took five minutes for Pine Manor to score on Amherst, as the home team came out with tons of energy and made defensive stop after defensive stop. The Jeffs led 45-10 at the half but continued to pour on the offense. Every Jeff got in the game and played significant minutes.
Although the Jeffs were not as dominant in the next two games, they still managed to thoroughly demolish their opponents’ defense. In both games, Amherst lead by 18 points at the half, allowing Head Coach GP Gromacki to give his rookies and non-starters some much needed playing time. The more time on the court each player sees, the deeper and more confident the team will be during the NESCAC Tournament, which is what Gromacki wants. Similarly, the Jeffs will get to know each other in game situations and be able to play to teammates’ strengths. In all their games, the Jeffs played like a cohesive unit and, against Mt. Holyoke, every Amherst player scored.
“Our team chemistry has always been a strength and that is definitely continuing this season,” said center Sarah Leyman ’11.
In particular, the integration of the first-years has been a big part of Amherst’s success so far this season. The Jeffs start two rookie guards — Finucane ’12 and Kim Fiorentino ’12 — and bring forward Lem Atanga-McCormick ’12 off the bench. Atanga-McCormick has become the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 13.6 points per game and grabbing an average of 7.6 rebounds, while Finucane leads the Jeffs in assists with a total of 19 in the first five games.
“It’s been great to come into such a close group of girls and be very welcomed,” said Finucane. “The season is well on the way and we are a team, not necessarily freshmen, sophomores or seniors.”
However, even though Amherst’s preseason success is important, they know that the real season — conference play — doesn’t start until the middle of January. They need to use the preseason to perfect their offensive plays and defensive skills while maintaining a must-win attitude in each contest.
“We treat all of our preseason games very seriously. Even if they’re not against the best opponents, we use them to really work on our game. And many preseason games are against very good opponents,” said Leyman.
Amherst followed up on their early succeses by taking a narrow-margin victory from Keene State University. The Jeffs’ offense edged out the Owls. Harik scored 10 points to lead the Jeffs while McCormick contributed with seven points and a career-high 11 rebounds.