PITTSBURGH — The Amherst College women’s basketball team threw everything it could at Wisconsin-Whitewater, but in the end fell just short in the NCAA Division III semifinal contest.
The Mammoths dropped a 55-51 game to the Warhawks, the same team that knocked out Smith College in the Sweet 16, on Thursday evening.
It looked like Amherst would replicate their most recent win against Trinity; late in the third, Reeya Patel went on a six-point run to close out the period, including a timely triple with 23 seconds to go that sparked the bench and gave the Mammoths a 44-41 lead and all the momentum heading into the final quarter.
“We were excited. We won that quarter by five. We thought we were in pretty good shape. And then again, it was a couple 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that were the difference,” Amherst head coach G.P. Gromacki said. “We rushed a few shots instead of pushing that lead up by a little bit more. Those shots didn’t fall, and then they capitalized on it.”
“They came out strong. They brought the intensity the entire game. For this entire tournament, we’ve been able to make runs and they stopped us,” freshman AnLing Vera said. “They capitalized in the end where they needed to.”
“I’m incredibly lucky to have gotten the opportunity to go here for the past four years and play with this program,” senior Courtney Resch said. “I think this year, we were special in the way that we were able to come together and really support and love each other from the beginning of the season.”