AMHERST — After scoring just nine points in the first quarter, the Amherst College women’s basketball team exploded with 22 points in the second quarter en route to a 60-51 win over Mary Washington in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Saturday.
A 9-for-16 shooting performance in the second quarter followed a 3-for-16 opening frame as top-ranked Amherst (29-0) settled into the game.
“We missed a lot of open shots that we’re not really accustomed to and we just hit a few more in the second quarter and I think we kind of woke up a little bit and turned the tide,” Amherst coach G.P. Gromacki said.
Senior Jaimie Renner helped spark the run in the second quarter, scoring seven of her game-high 18 points during the frame.
“I was just trying to drive where I found openings and then try to hit 3s when they left me open. I would like to hit a few more of those,” Renner said.
Renner finished 2-for-7 from beyond the arc.
“I think she definitely stepped up,” senior Ali Doswell said of her teammate’s performance. “They were leaving her open and she made some shots when she needed to and she just played confidently.”
The shots continued to fall for Amherst following halftime. AC outscored the Eagles 20-16 in the third quarter, with Renner adding another seven points off a pair of 3-pointers in the frame.
Amherst appeared to put the game away late in the third when Doswell hit a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 19, but Mary Washington battled in the fourth to keep the game close.
“We took a big lead on them midway through, I think the third quarter or end of third quarter, and I don’t know if we relaxed, but they made a couple shots and they got some positive flow going,” Gromacki said.
The Eagles outscored Amherst 16-9 in the fourth quarter and worked the deficit down to eight, but with just 12 seconds remaining, the comeback attempt fell a short.
“They just made the plays,” Gromacki said of Mary Washington’s late run. “They hit some tough shots on us, banked a 3 that kind of got them excited and they kind of took off from that. They played good defense and again, they just made some plays when they needed to when we thought we were going to pull away.”
Amherst lived behind the arc on offense, with 35 of its 58 field-goal attempts coming from 3-point land.
“We are a lot of really good 3 shooters, but we didn’t expect to take that many, that’s for sure. Next time we’ll make more, I can guarantee that,” Gromacki said.
Amherst shot 10-for-35 (28.6 percent) from beyond the arc, a bit worse than its season average of 32.9 percent.
Doswell finished just behind Renner with 17 points.
“Ali’s always a key scorer, so she’s kind of just doing what she always does, but she was aggressive, made some 3s, made some big baskets, per usual,” Renner said.
Amherst advanced to the third round, where it will face Babson on Friday.
Amherst defeated the Beavers 67-62 on Nov. 20 in Amherst’s second game of the season.
“I think we’re ready to go,” Doswell said. “We’ll get a good week of practice under our belt and take a close look at our last game with them. We’ve improved a lot since then, so I think we’ll just keep working hard this week, and we’ll be ready.”
Added Renner, “I think we definitely have the right mindset going in. We’re all really excited to play them again.”