Women’s basketball claimed the NESCAC championship in decisive fashion over the weekend, beating Bowdoin 60-45 before using 19 second-half points from Marcia Voigt ’13 to triumph over Williams, 53-38, in the title game. With the win, the fifth-ranked Lord Jeffs (26-1) captured their fourth NESCAC title in five years, avenging their sole loss earlier this month in Williamstown and assuring themselves of an automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Women’s basketball finds itself alone atop the NESCAC after handing Tufts its first loss in a thrilling top-five matchup on Saturday. The 54-48 victory, coupled with double-digit wins over Wesleyan and Bates earlier in the week, leaves the team undefeated with just two games remaining before postseason play begins.
Wesleyan only lost by four points in its January meeting with the Lord Jeffs, but the Cardinals (9-10, 2-6 NESCAC) average the second-fewest points per game in the conference and had no answers against Amherst’s stifling defense.
Women’s basketball picked up where it left off after the break, improving to 19-0 and winning its first six conference games. After a Marcia Voigt ’13 buzzer-beater against then-undefeated Simpson and a couple of close games against Wesleyan and Conn. College, the third-ranked Lord Jeffs won four of their next seven games by over 15 points and now sit atop the NESCAC tied with fourth-ranked Tufts, who they will play at home on Saturday. Amherst starts the season 13-0 or better for the sixth straight year and has won a remarkable 96 of its last 100 games.
It may have been a week off from NESCAC play for the women’s basketball team, but the squad took care of business, staying undefeated last week with road wins over Keene State and Skidmore.
The team dominated Keene State throughout en route to a 23-point win on Tuesday before pulling away from Skidmore in the second half for a 64-36 victory on Saturday. With the wins, the ninth-ranked Lord Jeffs open the season 5-0 for the sixth straight year.
An explosive second half helped the top-ranked Amherst women’s basketball team down eighth-seeded Trinity College, 94-59, on Saturday in the NESCAC quarterfinals. Shannon Finucane ’12 became just the 13th player in Amherst history to join the 1,000-point club with seven points in the playoff victory.
After sneaking by Colby last weekend to keep their perfect season alive, the women’s basketball team returned to their more dominant ways with two more double-digits NESCAC wins this week, beating Williams, 80-58, and Trinity, 66-44.
Despite a rowdy Williams’ student section and early full-court press from the Ephs last Wednesday, Amherst took the lead early on after a Shannon Finucane ’12 triple that put them up 7-6 just three minutes in.
In case (for some reason) you haven’t been following the world of Div. III women’s basketball, now would probably be a pretty good time to start. After all, with Trinity’s men’s squash team losing to Yale last weekend, the Amherst women’s basketball team may just hold the longest current streak in DIII sports (but don’t quote me on that).
