NORTHAMPTON — Two years away from the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Basketball Tournament felt like an eternity for Amherst College and head coach G.P. Gromacki.

The Mammoths have been a national powerhouse under Gromacki, who took over in 2007. His tenure has included three national championships (2011, 2017, 2018). So when Amherst was left out of the past two NCAA tournaments, it came as a shock.

After earning an at-large bid in this year’s big dance, the Mammoths made the most of their return trip to the tournament Friday night. Amherst held Vassar, its first-round opponent, to 3-for-23 shooting in the first half, and never trailed by less than 10 points for the entirety of the third and fourth quarters en route to a 64-49 win at Ainsworth Gymnasium on the campus of Smith College.

Amherst will play Smith on Saturday night in a colossal clash between two of the most successful Division 3 programs of the 21st century. They just so happen to both reside in Hampshire County, and haven’t matched up since December of 2007.

“We were excited to be in the tournament, and it really showed from the get-go,” Gromacki said. “Our defense was smothering. I think they scored 10 points from foul shots and seven points from the floor in the first half. Our defense was just all over the place and really set the tone for the game. They showed the excitement, they were composed, and Vassar made a run but we made some big shots to extend the lead.”

One of those big shots came from junior Laura Mendell. The junior, competing in her first NCAA tournament, checked out of the game in the third quarter following a hit to the face. After a few minutes on the bench, Mendell subbed back in and buried a 3. Amherst had a turnover-filled stretch with Mendell off the floor, but she diminished any momentum Vassar had built with her long ball. Annie McCarthy drilled a 3 on the ensuing Mammoths possession, and all of a sudden Amherst was ahead 38-21.

Amherst took a 43-32 lead into the fourth, and its offense took over from there. Despite only shooting 43 percent from the field for the game, the Mammoths dominated the boards on both ends. On defense, Vassar was one-and-done. Offensively, Amherst grabbed an offensive rebound and had multiple looks on a handful of its possessions.

Seven players brought down five or more rebounds for Amherst, which had a whopping 49-19 advantage on the glass – including a 16-3 disparity on offense.

“In our previous games, that was kind of our downfall, was letting our opponents out-rebound us,” Amherst senior forward Maya Cwalina said. “This entire week in practice we had our assistant coaches come up with a really good drill and kind of really drilling in that when you’re on offense, rebound like you’re on defense. And those were huge for us today… We kind of implemented our drills into when we were playing 5-on-5, and that really translated into the game today.”

Amherst started the night on a 9-0 run, using a pair of Anna Tranum buckets and a Kori Barach and-one to kickstart its first tournament win since 2022 – when the Mammoths made it to the Final Four. Vassar didn’t make its first field goal until there was one minute remaining in the opening quarter. Amherst used its defensive aggression to build a 21-9 lead after one.

The Mammoth lead ballooned to 27-10 after Mendell worked for a steal and raced down the floor for a layup on the other end, prompting a Vassar timeout. Gromacki’s bunch forced 15 points off turnovers as it went ahead 32-17 at the break. The biggest lead of the night for Amherst came at the 4:50 mark of the fourth quarter as it catapulted in front by 22.

Mendell scored a team-high 15 points and snatched a game-high nine rebounds, Cwalina (six rebounds) tossed in a dozen points, Brielle Renwick (seven boards) and Barach (five rebounds) each scored nine points while Reagan Pahl and Tranum tossed in seven points apiece.

Amherst may not have played its best (29 turnovers), but plenty enough was done to advance to Saturday’s second round, right back at Smith College.

“Our team is based off defense and togetherness, and we started the game getting a lot of stops on defense and getting a lot of easy buckets,” Mendell said. “We just always have to be able to turn that defense into offense, and then once we [do that], we take more confident shots. We just have to come out strong [on Saturday]. We’re going to be playing [Smith], and we’re ready for that. It’s going to be a battle of western Mass., and we’re ready to get after it.”

Gromacki took over for current Smith head coach Lynn Hersey, who used to coach at Amherst, back in 2007. Both have certainly had their success since then, and Saturday should feature quite the chess match from the two veteran coaches patrolling the sidelines.

Smith sets up Hampshire County showdown

Smith 69, SUNY-Cobleskill 59 — As every good team does, SUNY-Cobleskill made a run to cut the Smith College lead to nine with just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The Tigers called timeout. The Pioneers had once led by 14, but the visitors just wouldn’t go away.

That is, until Hannah Martin drilled the dagger.

Out of the timeout, Martin canned a triple, her fourth of the night, and Smith fended off a late Cobleskill push to earn a 69-59 win in the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Basketball first round on Friday night at Ainsworth Gymnasium.

“In the fourth quarter, when they made their little push to get it back down to nine, and then we gave our own little push back, I think it just shows how we handle adversity,” Martin, a sophomore, said. “That’s something I’m really proud of. We get faced with a lot of difficult moments, and they could’ve easily taken that momentum and gotten closer with three minutes left. But we didn’t let them.”

The Smith backcourt put on an absolute show Friday, as graduate transfer Ally Landau, senior Jane Loo and Martin willed the Pioneers to victory. In the first half, Loo helped Smith overcome a slow start by putting up 13 points on 60 percent shooting – aiding the hosts to a 32-26 halftime lead. Over the final two quarters, it was Landau and Martin at the controls. Both scored 13 points in the second half, and Landau pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds as well.

As the old adage goes, strong guard play wins games in March, and Smith certainly had that against Cobleskill. Martin finished with 22 points, Landau tossed in 17 and Loo scored 15 as the only three Pioneers players in double figures.

“It’s just trusting our body of work,” Martin said. “Our entire season, this time of year is what we’re working toward. In every game that we’ve played, it’s bigger than just that game. We knew this is where we wanted to be, so we know that in comparison to the teams we’re playing that we have way more experience in these big moments. When things don’t go our way, we kind of get together and take a deep breath.”

Despite the guard dominance, it was still a total-team effort. Virginia Johnson came off the bench and nailed a crucial 3 in the fourth, Jazmyn Washington and Ella Sylvester held one of the best frontcourt players they’ve seen all season – Cobleskill’s Logan Thayne – to just 30 percent shooting, and Maggie Fleming was tremendous sealing off Tigers players for Landau to fly in for rebounds.

Smith will need more of that on Saturday against the Mammoths, a matchup both sides are most definitely looking forward to – especially Smith head coach Lynn Hersey, who coached there from 2001-07.

“They’re a good team, and really well-coached,” Hersey said. “There are some things that I think we practiced a lot tonight on, and hopefully we’ll be able to bring that to the game [Saturday]… We’ll get our team ready to go, and it will be a battle. No doubt.”