Nationally ranked No. 19 Amherst College made 11 shots from 3-point range en route to a 65-53 NESCAC win against the Hamilton College Continentals at Amherst's LeFrak Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

Amherst (20-4, 8-2 NESCAC) ended up 10-0 at home this season and finished in second place in the conference standings. Amherst will host a 2016 NESCAC Championship quarterfinal on Saturday, Feb. 20, as the No. 2 seed.

Hamilton (11-13, 2-8) outscored Amherst 26-18 in the paint, 21-9 off turnovers and 30-20 in bench points in the last game this season for the Continentals.

Michael Grassey '19 and Peter Hoffmann '19 paced Hamilton with nine points apiece off the bench. Andrew Groll '19 filled the stat sheet with eight points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. Ajani Santos '16 and Joe Pucci '18 grabbed a team-high seven boards apiece.

Amherst's Connor Green led all scorers with 15 points. Jeff Racy was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc and finished with 13 points. Jayde Dawson posted nine points and four assists, and Michael Riopel added nine points off the bench. Johnny McCarthy contributed eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Amherst jumped out to a 17-7 lead midway through the first half thanks to five 3-pointers in the opening six-plus minutes. Green and Dawson made two apiece and Racy added one basket from long range. McCarthy's layup made it 17-7 with 13:05 left.

After Amherst increased its lead to 15 points at 27-12, the Continentals clawed back to within eight points with a 10-3 run. Grassey and Santos started the spurt with baskets and Jack Donnelly '16 buried a 3-pointer. Green restored Amherst's double-digit lead with a trifecta but Tim Doyle '19 cut Hamilton's deficit to 30-22 on another 3-pointer with 3:14 remaining.

Amherst led 34-22 at the break thanks in part to a 7 of 14 performance on 3-point field goal attempts. The Continentals shot 24.2 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes.

Amherst led by double digits for most of the second half and took its largest lead of the afternoon of 18 points at 57-39 with 7:07 to go. Hamilton responded with a 14-5 run and cut its deficit to nine points. Groll kicked off the spurt with four straight points and Grassey scored six of the last eight, including a layup that made it 62-53 with 1:43 left. Those turned out to be the last points of the game for the Continentals, who missed all five of their shot attempts and committed a turnover in the last 90 seconds.