Just two more victories stand between No. 1 Amherst and its third-straight NESCAC championship. The Lord Jeffs avoided their earliest-ever exit from the conference tournament last weekend, surmounting a six-point halftime deficit to defeat the eighth-seeded Bates Bobcats 72-68 and advance to their seventh-straight NESCAC semifinal.
In round two, Amherst will face-off against No. 5 Colby, which was the only road team to score an upset in the quarterfinal round. Behind 26 points from NESCAC Player of the Year candidate senior Drew Cohen, the Mules earned their first trip to the semifinals since 2001 by outlasting fourth-seeded Middlebury 91-79 in overtime. When Amherst and Colby met in Waterville, Maine on Jan. 26, the Jeffs limited Cohen to eight points on 4-12 shooting, as Amherst took the game 69-58. The last time the teams squared-off in the NESCAC Tournament was during the 2001 title game, which Amherst won convincingly 61-46.
The other match-up will pit No. 2 Trinity against No. 3 Williams, both of whom took their first-round home games by double digits. Bolstered by a 20-3 second-half run, the Bantams erased a six-point deficit and downed seventh-seeded Bowdoin 77-67.
In Williamstown, the Ephs punched a ticket to the conference semifinal for the first time since 2004 with a commanding 84-72 victory over Tufts. Trinity and Williams last met on Jan. 19, as the Bantams edged the Ephs 65-62 on a conventional three-point play by senior guard Kino Clarke with 30 seconds left. Tomorrow's clash will mark the first time the teams will ever meet in the NESCAC Tournament.
If favorites Amherst and Trinity both advance to Sunday's championship game, it will mark the second meeting between the teams in as many weeks. On Feb. 10, the Bantams ended the Jeffs' 41-game regular season winning streak and dealt the 2006 NCAA semifinalists their only conference loss of the season. With the victory, Trinity improved to 5-2 in regular season games against Amherst since the 2000-01 season. The Jeffs, however, have dominated the postseason series between the teams, taking all four postseason match-ups against the Bantams since the tournament's inception in 2000.
-by Sapna Bansil
