The two-time defending national champion Amherst College women’s basketball team rallied. It just wasn’t enough Friday night.
The Mammoths overcame a slow start to force overtime, but St. Thomas held on for a 61-58 victory in the NCAA Division III Tournament Sweet 16 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Amherst trailed 26-17 at halftime, but rallied to pull within 35-33 at the end of the third quarter.
The game remained close. A Madeline Eck layup with 57 seconds left pulled Amherst within 49-48. Kaia Porter answered with 26 seconds left for a three-point lead, but with 1 second left, Cam Hendricks drilled a 3-pointer to force overtime.
Amherst took a 52-51 lead on an Eck free throw, but Porter hit back-to-back 3s for a 57-52 lead with 3:28 left.
Amherst clawed back and had two opportunities to tie the game at 57, but Meghan Sullivan missed two free throws and Eck missed inside with 34 seconds left. However, Hendricks grabbed the offensive rebound and Hannah Fox hit a 3 with 30 seconds left for a 58-57 Amherst lead.
Hannah Spaulding made a pair from the line six seconds later to give St. Thomas the lead. Hendricks missed a 3 with nine seconds left at the other end and Lucia Renikoff made two from the line for the final margin.
Eck finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Fox had 10 and seven, respectively, while Hendricks added six and 10 for Amherst (25-3).
Sullivan, of Granby, finished her career with five rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
Spaulding had 28 points and 18 boards for St. Thomas (28-1).
Fordham 73, UMass 62 — The second-seeded Rams (23-8) eliminated the 10th-seeded Minutewomen (16-16) in the quarterfinal round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Pittsburgh.
Hailey Leidel finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Destiney Philoxy came off the bench for 21 points.
Fordham held a steady lead for much of the game. UMass was within 32-28 with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter when the Rams end the half on a 13-6 run.
Smith 17, Gordon 7 — Shannon McGinnis and Clelie Fielding each had four goals, while Chloe Harris had three goals and three assists as the Pioneers (3-0) rolled at Endicott in Beverly.
Wisconsin 8, UMass 0 — The Badgers hit three home runs to beat the Minutewomen in the USF Tournament in Tampa, Florida.
Riley Gregoire, Madison Gimpl, Hannah Bunker, Kaycee Carbone and Alyssa Lyon each had one of UMass’ five hits.
South Florida 7, UMass 1 — Carbone (3-for-3) was a homer shy of the cycle and added a run scored, but the Minutewomen (8-9) dropped their second game of the USF Tournament.
Aiden Foucault-Etheridge, of Amherst, and Aidan Gilson, of Northampton, were half of MIT’s sixth-place distance medley relay that earned All-American status at the NCAA Division III national championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.
The pair teamed with Simon Alford and Benton Wilson to finished in 10:04.82.
Amherst placed fourth (10:03.09) behind Spencer Ferguson-Dryen, Ryan Prenosil, Ralph Skinner and Cosmo Brossy.
Clark Ricciardelli was second in the 5,000 in 14:28.54 for the Mammoths.