Never in the history of the Amherst women’s basketball program has the team started its season with 18 straight wins. The Jeffs’ flawless record puts them at number one in the NESCAC and fourth overall in Div. III.
Though Amherst has been challenged a couple of times, the team has won the majority of its games by 20 points or more. Remaining unbeaten more than halfway through the season is no easy feat, but the Jeffs try to focus on each individual game and downplay the importance of their winning streak.
“The streak is on our minds a little, but we go into each game with the mentality that we go after the other team and we don’t wait for them to attack us,” said center Sarah Leyman ’11. “We take every game one at a time and that helps us focus on winning each game instead of thinking about the pressure of an unbeaten season.”
After a short holiday break, the Jeffs traveled to Daytona Beach, Fla., to take on Fitchburg State University and Kenyon College in the Land of Magic Tournament. Winning both games, Amherst returned home to play what would be the toughest match of the season against the Wesleyan University Cardinals.
Though the Jeffs maintained a slight lead for most of the first period, the Cardinals managed to take a one-point advantage into the halftime break. Wesleyan took control at the beginning of the second half, running up an eight-point lead after just six and a half minutes of play. But the Jeffs were not prepared to forfeit their perfect record and managed to come from behind to edge the Cardinals 57-54.
Rookie Lem Atanga-McCormick came off the bench to lead the Jeffs’ offense with 15 points while the Amherst team out-rebounded the Cardinals 33-31.
“I think a sense of urgency finally hit us, and we knew that we hadn’t been playing well all game, but we still had the chance to turn it around in our favor and pull out the game. Lem made a couple of important plays inside, grabbing offensive rebounds and scoring. We focused on defense each possession, and we were able to make the necessary defensive stops. I think Kristyn Dunleavy ’11 and Stacy Brossy ’09 then hit two huge three-pointers to give us an advantage that we managed to hold until the clock ran out,” said co-captain forward Yasmine Harik ’09 of the Jeffs’ second-half comeback.
Amherst continued its domination of the NESCAC throughout the rest of Interterm, notching six more wins. For the most part, the Jeffs have done an excellent job of starting the second half strong and taking control of the game. Interterm also allowed the Jeffs to fine-tune their offense plays and improve strength and fitness levels.
“We had a successful and fun trip to Florida and continued to work hard every day, twice a day, for the first couple weeks of Interterm,” said Harik. “We are becoming more comfortable with each other on the court with every practice, and the work is paying off.”
Sophomore forward Jaclyn Daigneault leads the Jeffs in scoring, averaging 10.7 points per game, while Atanga-McCormick and Leyman each average nearly 10 points per game. The trio also leads Amherst in rebounds, each grabbing about six per game.
With only six regular season games remaining, the Jeffs must continue to stay focused so as not to relinquish the number one seed for the NESCAC tournament. They must also prepare mentally for the tournament if they want to remain NESCAC champions.