The Amherst women’s basketball team advanced to the third round of the Division III national tournament with two victories in LeFrak Gymnasium on Friday, March 3.
Entering the tournament undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, Amherst swept aside Regis College 65-37 in Friday’s first round. The team then defeated No. 22 Mary Washington, 60-51, on Saturday.
Against Regis College, Amherst played solid defense right off the bat, allowing their opponents to only score two points in the opening quarter.
Emma McCarthy ’19 led the team with six points, while Meredith Doswell ’17 added five and Hannah Fox ’20 pitched in three from the bench.
Amherst then used a 9-0 second quarter run to enter the locker room at halftime with a 44-13 lead.
In the third quarter, Regis attempted a comeback, outscoring the purple and white 12-5 in those ten minutes.
During this time, Amherst shot just 18% from the floor. However, the purple and white turned it around and pulled away in the fourth to win 65-37.
Maeve McNamara ’19 had a game high 11 points off the bench. In total, Amherst’s bench added an impressive 47 points to the game total.
With the win, Amherst moved on to the second round of the single-elimination tournament.
After less than 24 hours of rest, Amherst met Mary Washington College, which had also played the previous night, in the second round on Saturday.
While the first quarter was extremely tight, a three by Meredith Doswell to open the second quarter gave Amherst a 12-6 lead. However, Mary Washington would not go down so easily, scoring seven unanswered to take the lead.
Amherst bounced back with four straight buckets to make it 20-13. Five points from Jamie Renner ’17 and three-pointers from both Hannah Hackley ’18 and Ali Doswell ’17 gave Amherst a 31-19 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, the purple and white hit five treys, including two each from Renner and Ali Doswell.
Although Mary Washington attempted a frantic rally in the fourth, the purple and white won their second round of the NCAA tournament by a score of 60-51.
Due to her performances over the course of the regular season, Ali Doswell has been named NESCAC player of the year.
Doswell now holds the record for most points ever by an Amherst women’s player with 1,507 in total.
She and her sister, Meredith Doswell, also garnered conference accolades this past week, with each being named First Team All-NESCAC.
First-year Madeline Eck also garnered NESCAC rookie of the year honors. Eck averaged 6.7 points a game and scored in double digits five times this season.
Head coach G.P. Gromacki, meanwhile, was named NESCAC coach of the year for the second year in a row.
Amherst has now advanced to the third round of the tournament for the 10th straight season.
The purple and white squad is slated to face Babson College on Friday, March 10 in the Sweet Sixteen round. In Amherst’s last meeting with Babson earlier this season, the purple and white claimed a hard-fought 67-62 victory.
