Final shot won't go as Mammoths fall to Trinity in NESCAC quarterfinal, 58-57

Final shot won't go as Mammoths fall to Trinity in NESCAC quarterfinal, 58-57 | https://athletics.amherst.edu/

By Press release submission

Feb 28, 2023

Final shot won't go as Mammoths fall to Trinity in NESCAC quarterfinal, 58-57

Junior Reeya Patel's jumper in the waning seconds bounced off the rim as the Amherst College women's basketball team saw its furious late comeback fall a single point shy Saturday in a 58-57 loss at Trinity College in a quarterfinal game of the 2023 NESCAC Tournament.

Amherst received 26 points from Kori Barach and a career-high 20 points from Anna Tranum but fell to 17-8 on the season. Trinity, who was led by Reilly Campbell's 22 points, improved to 21-4 on the season.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* Amherst led 38-32 at the half but would score only 4 points in the third quarter and trailed the final stanza down by five, 47-42. Barach, who scored 15 of her 26 points in the first half, would go 0 for 9 from the floor over the first 15 minutes of the second half., echoing her team's shooting struggles. As a team, the Mammoths knocked down 2 of their first 14 shots in the second half.

* Trinity would push its lead to eight points with 4:04 remaining. Tranum knocked down an elbow jumper with 3:41 left to cut it back to six. Down 7, Barach dropped in a long three-pointer for her first field goal of the half after Vera came up with a key steal on an inbounds play Down six, Barach drove the baseline and banked home a lay-up to make it 58-54. Amherst got a stop and Barach dropped in another critical three-pointer to make t a one-point game at 58-57.

* The Mammoths got a key stop and gained possession with 28 seconds to go when Patel snared a defensive rebound. G.P. Gromacki called a timeout with 22.5 seconds remaining. Patel got the ball, weaved around to the right, drove toward the hoop, and pulled up for a 14-footer, but it banked off the glass and then off the front of the rim, bounding away with two seconds left.

* Barach scored the final 7 points of the first quarter as the Mammoths roared back from early 7-0 and 16-7 deficits to construct a 17-0 run and take a 24-16 lead with 7:02 to go in the second quarter. First, Barach nailed a three off the left wing to make it 16-10 Trinity. She then drained a 12-foot jumper to cut it to 4 and followed that with a steal and coast-to-coast run that results in a lay-up and made it a 16-14 game after the opening 10 minutes.

* Tranum scored all 16 of her first-half points in the second quarter when she accounted for 16 of the Mammoth's 24 points. Barach opened the quarter with another trey off the left wing 10 seconds in for Amherst's first lead of the game at 17-16. After a pair of AnLing Vera free throws increased the lead to five, Tranum got hot, nailing a foul line jumper, then driving the lane to hit a skilled left-hand flip shot while being fouled. She drained the foul shot for the 24-16 lead with 7:02 to go.

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Amherst had a significant 23-15 edge on the glass in the first half, but Trinity turned it around in the second, out-rebounding the Mammoths, 14-9.

* The Bantams shot 43.4 percent (23 of 53) from the floor in the game. They hit on 50 percent (7 of 14) of their three-point attempts.

* For Amherst, Alix Stuart had 2 points and a team-high 9 rebounds. Vera scored 5 points and had a team-high 7 assists. Brooke Ingemi played 30 minutes and had 2 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound, and 1 steal.