Williamstown, MA - The Williams College Ephs (14-10) entered this game against their NESCAC rival the Amherst College Mammoths (18-6) with a lot on their mind: playoff aspirations, the senior day festivities, and the pride of beating Amherst after their loss to them earlier in the season. On offense, Williams hit big shots and
Arianna Gerig had X points but the Ephs would never lead despite making the game close on many occasions. The issue for them was Amherst's interior offense which seemed to get whatever shot they wanted including their late push to close out the game and win 62-54.
If Williams were to win this game, they needed production from senior captain and Ephs leading scorer,
Arianna Gerig. In her first drive, Gerig took it to the hole and drew a foul on which she converted both free throws. Amherst, on the other hand, was taking the ball to the basket but couldn't seem to find the finish until halfway through the quarter. The story of the Ephs' earlier season loss to Amherst was the smothering defense the Mammoths dished out and this first quarter was another page of that book. The Williams perimeter passes were heavily contested and forced Williams to work for every basic offensive play. The only solution for the Ephs was seemingly the driving game but perhaps it was nerves that led them to multiple sloppy interior possessions. Things changed with Gerig, who had the first 7 Williams points, converted an and-one fast break drive off a steal, 10-7 Amherst. Williams was being kept alive in this first quarter by free throws, shooting 8/11 from the line. A late push from the Mammoths built on driving plays and a mistake Williams foul gave Amherst a slight 18-10 cushion before the second.
Williams shrunk the Amherst lead quickly into the second. First-year starting point guard
Micah Walton got herself on the board with a pretty mid-range pull-up followed by another and-one from Gerig, and big
Mairi Smith connecting on a mid-range corner shot, 22-18. Both teams slowed up midway through the quarter until the worst-case scenario struck for Williams with two consecutive fouls on Gerig. This put three personals on Gerig and forced her out of the game. Amherst was able to string a run together utilizing the shot clock well and catching the Ephs off-guard with slow, methodical play. However, a three from
Tatum Leuenberger off an assist from Tounkara sparked energy into the arena, 29-27 Mammoths. Unfortunately for Williams, a 4-0 run for Amherst closed out the half and they led 33-27.
Out of halftime, the Ephs had time to rethink their offense along with Gerig getting back on the floor. She stuck to her driving game and Leuenberger hit another big three, 37-33. With the offense firing for Williams, the next big question was the defense. It seemed as if Amherst ran the same weak side drive play every possession and still Williams gave up semi-contested or even open lay-ups to the Mammoths who were quick off the dribble, 42-35. Even though Amherst could not connect on a three, the difference of points in the paint was night and day, 28-6 before the fourth. Despite a buzzer-beater mid-ranger from Walton, Amherst led 50-40 with 10 minutes of play left.Â
If Williams was going to come back, they needed to channel their fourth-quarter magic from their game yesterday against Hamilton. It was a promising start with Smith draining two early free throws. The Ephs took a gambit on defense trying a zone; allowing the weak-shooting Amherst team to beat them on deep shots instead of the drive. The gambit was paying off with a 5-0 run to start the quarter and multiple disastrous Amherst possessions where they either turned it over or couldn't find the rim. The other change for Williams was offensive rebounds. They are a heavy transition team, both offensively and defensively, yet in this fourth, every rebound they were crashing and not allowing the tired Mammoths to get any easy possessions. However, credit two timeouts from long-time Amherst head coach, G.P. Gromacki, for making adjustments that stifled the Williams momentum halfway through the quarter, 57-45. The 7-0 Amherst run included their first three and an offensive adjustment of playing the high middle of the paint to draw out the Eph's big. The final few minutes saw turnovers for both teams along with sloppy fouls. There was hope from Williams including senior
Izzy Sullivan's first basket of the game and free-throw misses for Amherst but it was too big a lead with too little time to overcome it. Amherst took home the heart-breaking victory, 62-54.
On the upsetting loss and the play of her team, head coach
Pat Manning said, "They got more shots than us. We were even in rebounds but our play hurt us. I give a lot of credit to our seniors and they fought hard. We did a lot of good things but we did not capitalize on all of our shots, even when we had good looks. They came up with big shots when they needed to and we did not get the defensive stops when we needed them. I'm proud of our effort and we get a chance to advance going to Bowdoin. It's going to be a hard road but why not… I'm glad we got to celebrate our five seniors. There were a lot of good things that happened but we did not come up big when we needed to."
Since Hamilton lost today as well and Williams has the tiebreaker from yesterday's win, Williams has qualified for the NESCAC tournament. As the eighth seed, the Ephs have a huge task in front of them as they play last year's winner and currently undefeated Bowdoin College on February 22nd in Maine.
