Proving that it can succeed in the face of adversity, the Amherst women’s basketball team defeated Tufts University in a game that had serious implications for the seeding in the conference tournament. The Jeffs also picked up a win against Bates College, moving them to 21-1 overall and 6-1 in the NESCAC.
“We knew it was crucial to beat Tufts this weekend and to win the rest of our games if we want a chance to host the NESCAC tourney,” said conference player of the week Sarah Leyman ’11.
The Jeffs began the weekend with a 63-46 victory over Bates. Amherst thoroughly dominated the first half, running up a 19-point lead at one point and allowing non-starters to get some well-deserved minutes in the second half. Though Bates managed to reduce the Jeffs’ lead to 12 points with five minutes gone in the second half, that was the smallest margin they ever managed and Amherst took home a 17-point victory.
“Our game against Bates set a tone of defensive intensity that we carried out all weekend,” said guard Kristyn Dunleavy ’11. “We always talk about playing ‘Amherst Basketball’ and we were finally able to do that for two halves. We played great help defense and were really able to pressure Bates and take them out of their rhythm.”
The Amherst players quickly turned their attention to the following day’s game against the Tufts University Bantams. Before the contest, Amherst, Tufts and Bowdoin all sat tied for first place in the conference standings. If either team wanted a chance at hosting the NESCAC tournament, then they had to win the game. Further, the match-up was a rematch of last year’s conference final game, which Amherst won by just six points.
The Jeffs clearly had come to play, as the game began with a 9-2 run by Amherst. But the Bantams responded quickly, tying up the game at 10-a-piece. The rest of the half was back and forth as the two teams traded the lead. The low-scoring first half ended with the Bantams leading the Jeffs by one.
The second period began much as the first, but with about 12 minutes remaining in the game the Jeffs began to take control, leading by nine early on. Tufts would not go down easily, however, and the game remained within the Bantams’ reach. Amherst exhibited solid defense in the second half, pulling off a 54-48 victory.
Leyman said of the win, “Our team played together for a full 40 minutes against Tufts and even when they made small runs, we kept our energy and intensity higher than theirs to be able to pull out that win.”
The Jeffs held Tufts to 28.6 percent field goal shooting in the second frame, and out-rebounded their opponents 42-36 on the game. Leyman led the Jeffs with 13 points, closely followed by sophomore forward Jaci Daigneault, who had 12 points and 14 rebounds for her third double-double in a row. Guard Courtney Long ’11 also reached double digits in scoring, recording 10 points on the night, while rookie guard Shannon Finucane led Amherst with five assists.
“Coach always talks about taking it one game at a time and we try to not let any one game take prominence over another,” noted Dunleavy. “To us, beating Tufts is just one more step along the way to our main goal of winning a national championship.”
For the Jeffs to host the NESCAC tournament, they must win their remaining games against Williams College and Middlebury College. However, Amherst’s loss to Bowdoin means that if the two teams are tied at the end of regular season play, Bowdoin wins the head-to-head tie-breaker. Thus, for Amherst to host, Bowdoin must also lose to seventh-ranked Wesleyan University or 10th-ranked Connecticut College.