#9 Amherst Survives Hard-Fought Battle With Babson Men's Hoops

BOX SCORE

AMHERST, Mass. - The Babson College men's basketball team nearly pulled off a huge upset over ninth-ranked Amherst College this evening at LeFrak Gymnasium, but the Lord Jeffs rallied late to defeat the Beavers, 62-55, in non-conference action. Amherst improves to 11-1 with the win, while Babson drops to 8-6.

Babson jumped out of the gate quickly, riding a strong early game performance from first-year Marcus Edwards (East Hampton, N.Y.). After just 3:10 of action, Babson led Amherst 9-2, with Edwards scoring all nine of the Beavers points. With 13:30 to play, Babson held strong, up 15-8, and was shooting a blazing 6-for-9 from the field.

At the midway point of the first half, Babson remained up seven points at 17-10, and forced Amherst into a five-second call while trying to inbound the ball under the Babson basket. Over the next few minutes, Amherst was unable to cut into the Babson lead, and with 6:40 to play a three from senior Norm de Silva (Dartmouth, Mass.) put the Beavers up, 24-16.

The Lord Jeffs responded with a spark off the bench from senior Glenn Wong (Leverett, Mass.) and junior DJ Carcieri (Narragansett, R.I.). The duo helped bump up the Jeffs' intensity on defense, leading to a 6-0 run. The Lord Jeffs took their first lead of the game at 27-26 on a pair of Carcieri free throws with 1:51 to play in the half.

Babson ultimately closed the stanza with a pair of scores to take a 30-27 lead into the locker room. At the break, Edwards led all players with 13 points, while first-year Jeff Holmes (Saunderstown, RI) paced the Jeffs with seven points.

Amherst first-year Taylor Barrise (Allendale, N.J.) converted a tough three-point play to cut Babson's lead to 37-35 with 15:42 to play in the second half. Then, with 12:00 remaining, a long possession for Amherst with a trio of offensive rebounds resulted in a three from Steven Wheeler (Bloomington, Minn.) to cut Amherst's deficit to just one, 43-42.

With 8:00 to play and Babson leading 48-44, Wheeler knocked down another triple spark a 10-0 Amherst run. During the stretch, senior co-captain Brian Baskauskas (Palo Alto, Calif.) had a put-back on his own miss, Wheeler hit his third and final three, and sophomore Conor Meehan (Meriden, Conn.) finished a nice drive with a reverse lay-up.

The scoring spurt put Amherst up 54-48 with 6:14 to play in regulation, but the Beavers responded over the next few minutes and closed the gap to 58-54 with 1:35 to go on a tough finish in traffic by first-year Matt Florio (Skillman, N.J.).

With just 30 seconds remaining and his team leading 58-55, Wheeler put the game away with an offensive rebound and conventional three-point play off his own miss. That gave the Jeffs a 61-55 advantage on their way to the eventual 62-55 victory.

At game's end, Wheeler led the Jeffs with 16 points, while co-captains Baskauskas and Mike Holsey (Potomac, Md.) combined for 20 points and 15 rebounds. Holsey also had a game-high six blocks and was a force on the defensive end all night. Edwards finished the night with a game-high 24 points and eight boards to lead Babson.

NOTE: Taken from an Amherst College press release.