It was an impressive weekend for the Doswell sisters and the rest of the Amherst women’s basketball team in the first round of NESCAC tournament last Saturday in LeFrak. The purple and white trampled over Bates in a decisive 82-29 victory in the quarterfinal game, in which Ali Doswell ’17 achieved her 1000th career point and sister Meredith Doswell ’17 put away 22 points to lead the team to the next round.

At a home game in front of an excited and sizeable crowd, Ali Doswell’s 1000th career point came in the form of a 3-point swish just two minutes into the game. Now with 1,013 points as only a junior, Doswell is only the 16th player in the program history to surpass the 1,000-point milestone.

After 10 minutes of play, purple and white had kept the momentum in their favor and held the advantage at 31-9. The lead extended to 50-16 by the halftime whistle, ending a first half characterized by phenomenal Amherst shooting percentages and domination of both offensive and defensive boards. The fantastic Amherst rebounding was led primarily by Meredith Doswell and sophomore Jackie Nagle, who ended the match with 12 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
In the second half, purple and white continued to put up significant points as well as to further shut down the Bates offense, outscoring the Wildcats 23-8 coming out of the locker room for the third quarter. Cheyenne Pritchard ’16 had a standout second half, hitting important deep shots early in the third quarter to extend the lead. The final 14 points of the contest went to the purple and white, and the score ended at an impressive 82-29 for Amherst. Sophomore Hannah Hackley finished with 11 points, Ali Doswell with 14 and Jaimie Renner ’17 added eight.

Their notable 53-point victory over Bates marks the second time in three games that this dominant purple and white squad has posted a 50+ point win as Amherst rolled over Middlebury on Feb. 12, finishing with a final score of 77-24.

Amherst now advances to the NESCAC semifinals, where the purple and white will match up against No. 3 Bowdoin at Tufts on Saturday in hopes of finishing a successful season with a NESCAC championship before NCAA tournament action.