AMHERST — The Amherst College women’s basketball team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 66-45 win over Husson, Friday night at LeFrak Gymnasium.
The two-time defending national champions were led by Hannah Fox with 23 points and five rebounds, and Madeline Eck with 14 points and four rebounds.
Amherst (24-3) will host SUNY Geneseo (24-4) at LeFrak Gymnasium at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“The first game of the tournament we knew we had to come out strong, excited to get the win now onto the next one,” Fox said. “Coming from the experience I’ve had, we knew having five freshmen everyone needed to be on board whether it be logistically or knowing that there’s a lot of strategy involved. Maximizing the entire experience was an emphasis of ours.”
While the Mammoths shot 34 percent from the floor, they held Husson to 25 percent shooting and outrebounded the Eagles 45-41. A 10-3 edge in 3-pointers and an 18-2 bench scoring advantage helped Amherst roll past Husson.
Amherst also capitalized on turnovers, scoring 23 points.
Amherst led 39-19 at halftime as Fox had 20 points and four rebounds.
“It was a great team effort, they’re a real scrappy team with a couple good shooters,” Amherst coach G.P. Gromacki said. “I thought we defensively took them out of the rhythm.”
Husson was led by senior guard Kenzie Worcester with 26 points and seven rebounds, and Megan Peach with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
“We didn’t know much about Husson or (Worcester) before the tapes but saw (Worcester) can do a lot of everything, you can’t leave her open,” Gromacki said. “I think we did good defensively on her. Jade DuVal came in and kind of changed the tide on her. She was a tough player, one of the best we’ve seen.”