WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.— The Ephs and Mammoths battled it out tonight in a contest that featured 15 lead changes. Though Williams (8-5, 0-1) fought hard, they were beaten by Amherst (10-2, 1-0) 60-57.
With a minute and a half to play, the Ephs found themselves facing a two point deficit. In a gritty play that involved two offensive boards, Maddy Mandyck was fouled and sent to the line, making both shots to even up the game.
The Mammoths drove the ball the other way, and threaded the needle for an uncontested layup. As the clock ran down, Williams was forced to foul, and Amherst sunk all four of their bonus shots, going up six with just ten to play.
Not going down without a fight, Arianna Gerig buried a corner three. The Ephs fouled on the inbound, and two misses on the part of an Amherst player gave Williams one more shot to tie up the game. Maddy Mandyck put up a three, but she couldn't get it to fall and the buzzer sounded with Amherst up three.
The teams started out the game evenly matched. The Mammoths scored the first points of the game on the fast break, and the Ephs responded, scoring two on the other end with a pullup for Maddy Mandyck.
For their next points, Amherst scored a putback after grabbing their third offensive rebound in the quarter. Mandyck scored with a jumper again— she would go on to score eight in the quarter.
With two minutes left in the quarter, Mia Holtze got a steal. She passed to Arianna Gerig, who took the ball down the court, and dumped it to Cortland McBarron, who was fouled on her layup attempt. McBarron would go on to make both free throws and score on Williams' next possession. With both teams scoring three more apiece, the Ephs held onto this four point lead going into the second quarter.
Though Holtze pushed the lead to seven at the beginning of the second, Amherst would go on a 12-1 through the middle of the quarter, taking a four point lead of their own. The Ephs ramped up their intensity, and spurred on by four made foul shots by Holtze and McBarron, they retook their lead by the end of the quarter, albeit by just one point.
The third quarter was all about momentum. The Mammoths' Sylvia Liddle would score nine points by herself in the first five minutes of the quarter, with the Ephs only making one free throw in response.
A reversal took place to end the period, though, and starting with a jumper off a pick and roll between Devin Biesbrock and Maddy Mandyck, Williams would go on to score ten to wrap up the quarter. Arianna Gerig played aggressively to bring the lead back to the Ephs, scoring six points from a variety of spots. The score was 42-41 Williams going into the final quarter.
Amherst took the lead back with a layup, and Gerig sank a three to score her ninth point in five minutes. With both teams playing at a high level, the game would stay within three until bonus shots began. Not able to complete the comeback, Williams lost 60-57.
Though the Ephs made 14 of their 16 free throw attempts on the night compared to the Mammoths' 6-10, rebounding kept Amherst in the game, as they were able to pull down sixteen offensive rebounds to Williams' nine.
Eph head coach Pat Manning focused on rebounding in her postgame comments, saying: "It's just not consistent. In the first half we gave up 13 O-boards, and in the second half we only gave up three. We just don't put together two halves of rebounding. The same thing happened the other night against WPI— it went better in the second half. You know, I want to be better in the second half, but we went into the locker room with a one point lead and we gave up 13 O-boards. We could've had a ten point lead if we didn't give up all those O-boards. Against really good teams you really have to take advantage when you get the chance."
She also identified unnecessary rotations as a problem for the Ephs. "They hurt us a lot on rotations. We rotated when we didn't have to rotate— we double-teamed and they found the open player. That wasn't our strategy, and we didn't adjust to that."
"Even though the scoreboard doesn't show it, to me it's a win," said coach Manning, praising the team's performance. She added: "Amherst is a ranked team— they were a final four team last year, they have all this success, and we haven't played them this well in a long time. When they were up six, in the past they've pulled away, but we came back and had the chance to tie it, so that was amazing."
On the team's preparation, Manning noted, "This is why we've played four back to back events, to get ready for days like this. We just have to let this go tonight and focus on Hamilton tomorrow."
To wrap up, she gave special thanks to the student section. "I want to give a shoutout to our students! We were so thrilled to see them in the gym for us tonight, and that really helped us. We'd love for everybody to come back tomorrow at three."
Williams will play Hamilton tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM, again in Chandler Gymnasium.
