Box Score
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Amherst, MA- No. 4 Williams suffered their first lost to their archrival, Amherst who is rank 1 in the country. Amherst won 85-63 over Williams, and captured the Little Three Crown. Williams' next game will be on Tuesday, January 11 against Wesleyan.
Amherst jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead and then extended that lead to 22-7 capped by a Marcia Voigt three at the 11:17 mark and Williams was never able to recover.
Coach Pat Manning, "We made a lot of poor choices and turned the ball over too much and you cannot make mistakes like that against a team that is a good as Amherst." Williams had 11 turnovers in the first half and 17 for the whole game.
Yet in the gloom after the loss Manning was able to find a silver lining: "I thought that Danny Rainer came off the bench and had a good game; she played tough, confident, and aggressive"
Rainer had 10 points and four rebounds. Claire Baecher and Jennie Harding also played well. Baecher had a team high 19 points and five rebounds, and Harding had 10 points and a pair of assists.
Amherst was lead by senior co-captain Jaci Daigneault who had a game high 20 points. Fellow Captain Sarah Leyman had 12 points four rebounds and three assist.
Williams was able to close the to 13 points at 42-29 in the second half of the first half but then Amherst went on a 7-2 run to end the half. The run put Amherst up 49-31 to enter the half.
In less than five minutes of second half action, Amherst pushed its lead to 21 points at 60-39 on a pair of Fiorentino free throws with 15:18 to play. Williams was able to close the gap to 14 points as Grace Rehnquist made a trio of free throws with 10:32 to play.
Amherst's lead quickly swelled back to 75-53 with 7:00 to play as Fiorentino hit back-to-back threes and Daigneault broke free for a lay-up.
Williams shot 37.3% for the game while Amherst shot 48.5%. The Lord Jeffs also out rebounded the Ephs 38-31.
