Box Score AMHERST, MA -- Amherst College senior Marcia Voight scored 19 of her game-high 21 points in the second half Sunday to lead the Amherst College women's basketball team past Williams College in the championship game of the NESCAC Tournament.
It was the Ephs first appearance in a NESCAC Tournament final. They fall to 22-5 overall while Amherst improved to 26-1 and received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Williams will await word of an at-large berth Monday. The announcement can be seen live beginning at 2:30 HERE.
Two weeks earlier, Williams had defeated Amherst in Williamstown, 71-51, with senior Claire Baecher scoring 30 points. In Sunday's title game rematch, Amherst held Baecher to six points while forcing 26 Eph turnovers and holding Williams to 28.6 percent shooting from the floor. In addition, Amherst won the battle on the glass, 41-32, which including 28 defensive rebounds while allowing the Ephs only three offensive boards in the game.
"Amherst played great defense for 40 minutes," Ephs' head coach Pat Manning said. "We played great defense for 20 minutes. That was the bottom line. In the second half we did not defend ball screens as well as we needed to, and we could not contain Voight. And it's hard to beat anybody with 26 turnovers, but especially a team as strong as Amherst."
Down by one at the half, the Ephs took a four-point advantage just 2:26 into the second half as Jennie Harding nailed a three-pointer, Kellie Macdonald scored a lay-up in transition and Baecher, after her own steal, sank two free throws for a 24-20 advantage.
From that point, it was nearly all Voight from Amherst. She scored 12 of her 19 second half points over the final 9 minutes and 32 seconds. Her lay-up gave the hosts a 27-26 lead with 14:55 and Amherst never trailed again. Another Voight lay-up made it 36-30 Amherst and her steal and lay-up increased that to 40-32 moments later.
Over the final seven minutes, the Ephs turned the ball over seven times and scored just six points. Voight's put the final nail in the coffin with 7:08 remaining when she hit a 22-foot three-pointer off the left elbow for a 43-32 lead.
The first half was as paradoxical as 20 minutes could get. Back and forth action, both teams running the floor at a frenetic pace, and each team playing geat team defense. The end result was Amherst up 18-17 despite shooting only 18.5 percent (5 of 27) from the floor and turning the ball over nine times.
Williams turned the ball over 13 times in the half, including on six of its first seven possessions. The Ephs shot only slightly better than the defending champions, hitting 21.7 percent (5 of 23) from the floor.
The Ephs starting trio of Baecher, Macdonald and Harding played only 23 of a possible 60 minutes in the first half in part to injury and foul trouble. But Manning received strong efforts from Borderud, who played great defense for 17 minutes, along with a soldi seven minutes from Littman.
Neither team led by more than four points in the half, with the Ephs up early 6-2. Moments after a Macdonald fast-break lay-up tied the score at 15 with 38 seconds to go, Amherst's Jasmine Hardy buried a three from the right wing. Macdonald's short jumper in the paint with four seconds left made it 18-17 at the break.
Ellen Cook's nine points led the Ephs, followed by Macdonald's eight, Harding's seven, Baecher's six and Grace Rehnquist's five. Baecher netted 10 rebounds and four blocks for the Ephs.
Megan Robertson scored 12 points for Amherst with seven rebounds. Savannah Holmes came off the bench for 10. Amherst finished with 18 steals, led by five from Voight and five from Holmes, who also had seven rebounds, all offensive.
