Well, the moderately Cinderella run has come to an end for the York College women, 79-55 losers to top-ranked and undefeated Amherst last night. National assist leader Aja Wallpher gave the Spartans their only lead of the game at 2-0, but the Lady Lord Jeffs quickly took control, jumping out to a 15-6 lead and a 32-18 halftime advantange, and never really looking back. Brittany Hicks led York with 26 points and 13 rebounds, and Wallpher added 6 assists. Amherst was led by conference player-of-the-year Caroline Steadman with 20 points and Kim Fiorentino with 9 rebounds.
York finishes their season 24-6. With only one senior in the starting five, they look to be quite good again next season; keep your eye out for a season preview in this space next November. Amherst improves to 29-0 and hosts Emmanuel, 67-56 winners last night over King's College, at 3 o'clock this afternoon; the game can be seen here. Carthage/Illinois-Wesleyan, St. Thomas/Calvin, and Mary Washington/George Fox are the other regional finals.
But we have better news from the men's side, as F&M took advantage of its mysteriously awarded home-court advantage to outlast Amherst, 80-71, and advance to the regional finals for the tenth time in program history. The Diplomats were led by two-time Centennial Conference player of the year Georgio Milligan, who poured in a season-high 30 points on 11-16 shooting (8-10 on free throws) and added 7 assists to directly account for more than half of F&M's points. The difference in the game came down to which team was a bunch of three-chuckers and which team wasn't: The Lord Jeffs shot a dismal 4-21 from behind the arc while F&M somehow only took one three-pointer the whole game (and missed it). Instead, F&M did something quaint: ran an actual offense, presumably designed to get high-percentage shots. Regardless of the design, it seemed to get them high-percentage shots, as the Dips shot 61% from the field on the game, and recorded assists on 19 of their made baskets while turning the ball over 13 times. Amherst, in contrast, shot only 35% from the field, which, considering their 19% shooting on three's, indicates to me that they should have stopped chucking three's and started trying to work the ball for an easy shot.
F&M moves on to face third-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who rolled past Staten Island, 83-67, and in doing so provided evidence that Amherst's shooting woes were self-inflicted and not the fault of balky rims in Lancaster, shooting 12 of 20 on three-pointers, and 53% overall from the field. The Engineers were led by Mitchell Kates, who had a game-high 29 points, and senior Jamie Karraker, who added 25 of his own, on 7-10 shooting on three's. Junior Will Tashman had his third double-double in as many NCAA tournament games, with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The win was the 13th straight for MIT, who improved to 28-1 on the season (the lone loss being at home to conference rival Worcester Polytech, a loss that the Engineers later avenged in Worcester). The Engineers feature a balanced attack, with four players averaging in double figures, led by senior Noel Hollingsworth, with 17.6 ppg, followed by Kates (14 ppg), Karraker (12.9), and Tashman (11.6). With senior Billy Bender (who may or may not be related to Billy Brubaker) adding 9.8 ppg, the Engineers have five legitimate scoring threats. Kates leads the team with 5.3 assists per game, and Tashman's leads the team with 9.6 rebounds per game. Not surprisingly for a team that's 28-1, MIT dominated its conference--the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (no, I didn't make that name up) --with just the one loss to WPI, and then dominated the post-season awards, too, with Hollingsorth, Tashman, and Kates all being named first-team all-conference and coach Larry Anderson named coach of the year (although Alex Berthiaume of Springfield was named conference player of the year).
Game tips at Meyser Center at 4 p.m. Nevada time and can be watched here. Cabrini/Scranton, Virginia Wesleyan/Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Illinois Wesleyan/Wittenberg are the other regional finals today.
Stay tuned for an update from the Division III indoor track & field championships from Grinnell, Iowa, where F&M junior middle-distance star Sheena Crawley is running in the finals of the mile later today.
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