The men’s basketball team played its last two games of the regular season on Friday and Saturday. In addition to being the Jeffs’ first competitions at Amherst since Interterm, the games were against top NESCAC seed Williams College and third-ranked Middlebury College, who sandwich Amherst in the NESCAC standings. The stakes were high and Amherst responded accordingly, notching a win against the Middlebury Panthers, then the only team with a perfect 8-0 NESCAC record, and playing to a hard-fought loss against the Williams Ephs.
The Jeffs first hosted the Ephs, who arrived at the end of what had already been a challenging week for Amherst. “Friday’s game was tough for us since we hadn’t really been able to practice all week due to illness and injury. I think we still came out and didn’t feel sorry for ourselves and played hard,” said co-captain Brian Baskauskas ’09.
Despite the limited preparation, Amherst had the early lead. But after the Ephs tied it at 27-27 with 4:54 to play in the first half, the Jeffs never led again, eventually losing 89-78. Three Jeffs had double-digit scoring in the game: Conor Meehan ’11 with 23 points, Marcus Bradley ’09 with 14 and Baskauskas with 12.
Less than 24 hours later, the Jeffs faced the daunting task of rebounding from the Williams loss in a game against the top NESCAC team, Middlebury. But Amherst accomplished just that, upsetting the Panthers 71-64.
“Saturday we were able to get into a groove and it was just one of those games that we were not going to let slip out of out grasp. We just really wanted to bounce back and beat Middlebury,” said Baskauskas.
The Panthers led for the first minutes of the game until first-year David Waller scored to tie the score at 19 with 10:36 remaining in the half. After exchanging the lead for several minutes, a lay-up by sophomore Kurt Bennett with 2:59 to go in the frame put the Jeffs up to a 34-32 lead. Amherst didn’t relinquish its lead again and entered halftime ahead by two at 39-37.
Despite keeping the score very close for the second half, the Panthers couldn’t get ahead of the Jeffs and eventually lost their first NESCAC game of the season 71-64. Though Middlebury relied heavily on Ben Rudin’s 29 points, Amherst was bolstered by three double-digit scorers: Baskauskas with 18, Meehan with 12 and Glenn Wong ’09 with 11. Baskauskas also added 12 rebounds for a double-double.
The victory was especially sweet for the five members of the class of 2009, co-captains Brian Baskauskas and Mike Holsey, Marcus Bradley, Ben Kaplan and Glenn Wong. The fivesome served as the Jeffs’ starting lineup and earned a huge win on Senior Day.
The team has only a week to revel in its latest win before it faces its next challenge: the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC tournament. The Lord Jeffs will take on seventh seed Trinity College on Saturday. In the teams’ first meeting, Amherst won easily, finishing 65-48. But the team isn’t going to use their previous success as an excuse to perform any less intensely since its opponent will be stronger than last month.
“Trinity is a tough team that’s grown a lot since the last time we faced them. But so have we, and I think we all know the task at hand and will prepare ourselves fully. This is what we’ve worked for — every game from here on out has to be like the championship to us,” said Jeff Holmes ’12.
Baskauskas echoed the first-year’s sentiments. “This Saturday against Trinity will be a battle. They are a very good team and they seem to get better as the season progresses.”
After the recent Senior Day, Holmes is confident that the team’s most experienced members will be key to leading the team to a post-season victory. “I know the seniors have been there before and if we follow their lead we have nothing to worry about if we leave it all on the floor.”