AMHERST — Hannah Fox scored 23 points as the Amherst College women’s basketball team defeated Wesleyan, 60-40, to advance to the semifinals of the NESCAC Tournament, Saturday at LeFrak Gymnasium.
“We all knew it was an extremely important game, it’s the NESCAC tournament,” Fox said. “We love when playoffs come around and we were very excited.”
Fox attributed her performance to the momentum Amherst created in the first quarter.
“We knew once we got going, we could keep going,” she said. “We could put the ball in the basket but at the end of the day, we needed to make sure they didn’t score on offense to build our lead.”
Amherst coach G.P. Gromacki was happy with their first playoff win. Gromacki said taking away Cardinals leading scorer Olivia Gorman was a big part of their win.
“Looking at what she’s been doing the past few games, it was really important for us to take her out of the game,” Gromacki said. “She’s put up 20-plus points the past few games. Taking her out was the big difference, and the reason why we held them to so few.”
Gorman, who averaged 14.6 points per game this season and 23 points in the Cardinals previous two games, was held to eight points Saturday afternoon.
The Mammoths advance to play Tufts in the semifinals, Saturday at 4 p.m. in LeFrak gymnasium. In their matchup on Feb. 1, Amherst defeated the Jumbos 50-40.
“We need to stay confident and we are all very excited,” Fox said. “We can’t wait to go for the semifinals and then everything beyond that as well. One game at a time, but we are really excited.”