With an impressive post-season record — three Final Four appearances in the last three years (including a 2007 national title and 2008 runner-up finish) and a 12-for-12 record in the NCAA first round — the 25th-ranked Lord Jeffs entered their first round game on Saturday as the favorites over unranked Gwynedd-Mercy College. The game, played at Richard Stockton College in Pomona, N.J., marked the first-ever Jeff-Griffin competition. Gwynedd-Mercy, appearing in its third-ever national tournament, earned a spot in the tournament with a Colonial States Athletic Conference title. Though the Jeffs lost the NESCAC title to ninth-ranked Middlebury, they earned an at-large spot in the national tournament and entered their first game with hopes to eventually advance to their fourth consecutive Final Four appearance. Those hopes were dashed, however, when the Jeffs lost to the Griffins 68-62.

Though Amherst led by as many as eight points early in the first half, they relinquished the lead with 9:30 on the clock before halftime. Despite having just six players playing more than six minutes in the game, the Griffins managed to overwhelm the Jeffs’ depth (Amherst played nine players for at least nine minutes) and jumped out to a 41-33 lead at halftime.

Gwynedd-Mercy extended their lead to 14 points at the second half’s halfway point. Then the Jeffs started chipping away at the deficit, scoring nine unanswered points: a three-pointer by first-year Taylor Barrise, a layup by junior Steven Wheeler, a jumper by sophomore Kurt Bennett and a jumper by sophomore Conor Meehan. The Griffins then managed two points before the Jeffs strung together a few more baskets: a jumper by Meehan, a layup by Barrise and a Meehan layup to close the gap to 60-59 with three minutes to go.

But Gwynedd-Mercy responded with a scoring run of their own late in the game to build the lead back to nine. At the final buzzer, the Griffins had a 68-62 victory, advancing to play Richard Stockton in the second round where they lost to their hosts 95-88.

Back at Amherst, five seniors — Marcus Bradley, Ben Kaplan, Glenn Wong, and co-captains Brian Baskauskas and Mike Holsey — finished their collegiate basketball careers as the third-winningest class in school history with 106 wins in their four seasons. Baskauskas will also graduate as the 15th-leading scorer in Amherst history with 1,204 points as a Jeff.

In their final game as the purple and white, the class of 2009 combined for 13 points: Baskauskas had five points, five rebounds and four assists, Bradley had six points, five rebounds and three assists and Holsey added two points, two rebounds and an assist. Just two Jeffs had double-digit scoring in the game: Meehan with 18 and Wheeler with 14. Meehan also got an impressive 11 rebounds and 8 assists in the loss.

Amherst will return a strong contingent next season of two seniors, three juniors and six sophomores and will look to advance farther into the 2010 postseason.