WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.— The Williams College Ephs (9-9, 1-3, NESCAC) defeated No. 22 Amherst College Mammoths (13-3, 2-2, NESCAC) 60-52 tonight.
The Ephs took advantage in the paint outscoring the Mammoths 26 to 14 and capitalized off Mammoth turnovers generating 22 points. As a team the Ephs had 17 steals and made 85.7% of their free throws. Junior
Arianna Gerig scored 26 points and was just shy of a triple double with 9 steals and 8 rebounds. Junior
Cortland McBarron scored 8 points with 7 rebounds and 5 steals.
After winning the tip-off, the Ephs scored the first basket of the game when junior
Arianna Gerig dribbled into the key and passed to her first-year teammate
Tatum Leuenberger who scored up and over from the baseline. Forward
Mairi Smith rebounded the ball on offense and found junior
Cortland McBarron as she cut across the key and put the ball up for 2 to make the game 4-4. First-year
Mairi Smith set a screen for
Arianna Gerig. She jumped and floated a 2 for the Ephs. Then, in transition to defense, guard
Arianna Gerig tapped the ball away from the Mammoths, and junior
Ellie Tounkara recovered it and converted a layup to end the quarter 15-9 with the Mammoths leading.
The 2
nd quarter heated up as both teams passed rapidly trying to find openings in each other's defense. Eph guard
Ellie Tounkara dribbled to the right-side,
Arianna Gerig cut to the baseline, Tounkara bounce passed to her, and assisted Gerig's layup. From the top of the left-side arc,
Mairi Smith bounce passed to guard
Cortland McBarron as she quickly cut to the baseline and used the backboard for 2. On the following Eph scoring attempt to tie the game 21-21, the Mammoths fouled Gerig and she sank both free throws. The Mammoths scored a basket, but
Cortland McBarron and
Arianna Gerig scored 5 free throws to give the Ephs a 3-point lead at 26-23.
Cortland McBarron stole the ball on defense off of a Mammoth pass in; her teammates took advantage and
Arianna Gerig scored the layup. At the buzzer for the second quarter,
Kate Keenan sent the shot up for a Hail Mary. The Mammoths fouled her and she scored 2 of 3 free throws. The first half ended with the Ephs leading 32-24. In the first half, the Mammoths' fouls piled up giving the Ephs 20 free throw opportunities.
Opening the 2
nd half,
Mairi Smith scored from under the basket,
Arianna Gerig stole the ball on defense, taking it end to end for a layup, and together, Ari passed to Mairi for a 2 from down the left-side pipeline. The Mammoths applied a full-court press this quarter. Adding to the Ephs lead, the Ephs out-maneuvered the Mammoths with passes down court from Leuenberger to Coster to Leuenberger to McBarron to Leuenberger who finally found
Sarah Batra for the open 2. Batra's basket gave Ephs their biggest lead of the night 48-28.
The 4
th quarter moved faster than all of the previous three as the Mammoths exhibited an explosive effort against the Ephs outscoring them 14-4 in the first 7 minutes. It was steals galore between the two teams. The Ephs had their most in a quarter with 8, and the Mammoths had 8 of their 10 in the 4
th. To break the run,
Arianna Gerig stole the ball at the half court line and took it all the way for 2 with just under 2 minutes left and putting the Ephs up 56-48. The Ephs final two points came when
Mairi Smith drained 2 free throws.
Ephs head coach
Pat Manning said, "It was an incredible team win tonight. Our free throw shooting was key at 85%. We had great team defense; we were locked in tonight. We defensively moved as one unit and did a great job on the boards especially in crunch time. We had two kids with 8 rebounds, Ari and Tatum, and Cortland with 7 rebounds. That has been something that we emphasized, so I think they were each key in crunch time too.
Arianna Gerig had an all-around great game, not only on the offensive end with 26 points, but she came up with 9 steals. It was an outstanding performance. There were baskets at key times by other players too; Cortland made some great cuts tonight, and Mairi hit some key shots for us. Everybody. Logan, off the bench, got us 6 points and went 4 for 4 from the line. It was such a team effort and just a gutsy win. Amherst came back at us and we handled the pressure well down the stretch by taking care of the ball. We forced 26 turnovers; that is key. Our defense won us this game."
The Ephs will return to NESCAC league play against Middlebury College at home in Chandler Gymnasium on Saturday the 20
th at 3pm.
