AMHERST, MA—Riding a devastating wave of first-half shooting, the No. 3 Amherst women's basketball team steamrolled to victory over No. 13 Williams by a 77-51 count. The win was the Jeffs' NCAA-record 106th in a row in their home of LeFrak Gym; they have not lost there since January 2009. The Ephs have not won there since 2007.
Williams actually outshot the Jeffs, 33-27, in the first half, but found themselves trailing for the simplest of all reasons: they shot 30.3% from the floor. Amherst? 66.7%, including a perfect 6-6 for Marley Giddins, who scored nine of Amherst's first 11 points and gave the Ephs fits in the paint. "It seemed like everything they put up went in," said Manning. "You can't make a lot of mistakes when you play Amherst."
The Ephs weren't taking poorly-chosen shots; not right away, at least. But with 13 minutes left in the first half, Ali Doswell and Jamie Renner made back-to-back threes and suddenly the Jeffs were up 21-5. Manning called a timeout, her second.
The break appeared to do the Ephs some good, as they began to capitalize on their own forays to the hoop and play more aggressive man-to-man defense. There was no comeback on, but the Ephs were treading water.
Soon, they began to sink again. With the score 27-13, the Ephs played their best defensive possession of the game, keeping the Jeffs out of the paint and away from any good shooting looks, with an increasingly excited Williams bench egging them on all the while. With five seconds left on the shot clock, Renner made one last pass, an outlet to Hannah Peterson behind the arc. She drained her shot; behind her, the Eph bench visibly deflated. "When that happened, we started forcing things," said Manning on her team's inability to finish defensive stands. "I think we panicked early when we just really shouldn't have."
Wary of the difference they had to make up, the Ephs pressed the fast-forward button on offense. But the gap only widened, all the way out to 24 before Ellen Cook drained a three off a nifty give-and-go with Devon Caveney at the first-half buzzer. And though they scored the first four points of the second half, with Katie Litman scoring a pair of left-handed layups from her post position, the Ephs never seriously threatened the Jeffs advantage again. "Every time we'd get a steal or get a stop, they'd come right down and score," mused Manning. "It's a deceiving [final] score, [but] they're a very good team."
Meredith Doswell led all scorers with 15 points; her twin sister Ali added 12, while Giddins notched a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) for the Jeffs. Kellie Macdonald (11 points) and Litman (10) were the only Ephs to reach double figures on the afternoon.
The Ephs now return to Williamstown, where they will begin a five-game homestand on Tuesday against Castleton in their final nonconference game of the season. Tip-off is set for 7pm.