SALEM, Va. – The No. 15 Amherst College men's basketball team fell to No. 2 Benedictine University, 63-60 in Friday evening's hard-fought, NCAA Division III Championship Final Four contest at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Va.

RECORDS
Amherst (26-6)
Benedictine (31-0)

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• In a back-and-forth start to the contest, Lucas Johnson canned a trey for Benedictine before Johnny McCarthy '18 answered for Amherst with a bucket in the paint.
• Adam Reynolds put the Eagles ahead by three with a layup before Jayde Dawson '18 swished a pair of free throws to pull the Purple & White to within one at 5-4.
• Another Johnson basket extended Benedictine's lead back to three, before a David George '17 jumper off the glass, followed by a fast-break layup from Dawson gave Amherst an 8-7 edge. A layup by Connor Green '16 gave the Purple & White a 10-7 lead before Tahron Harvey responded with a layup to make it 10-9.
• With the Eagles ahead, 11-10, McCarthy and Jeff Racy '17 swished back-to-back treys to give Amherst a 16-11 lead at the 10:00 mark.
• Harvey answered with a three-pointer of his own 31 seconds later to pull the Eagles back to within two (16-14).
• After nearly four minutes of scoreless play, Michael Blaszcyk hit a pair of free throws, and Matt Chaltin made a bucket underneath to give Benedictine an 18-16 advantage with 5:22 to play in the half.
• Late in the stanza, Amherst regained the lead when Dawson drained a pair from the charity stripe with 4:03 on the clock to set the score at 22-20.
• A strike from beyond-the-arc by the Eagles' Blaszczyk gave Benedictine a 23-22 edge before Green answered with a three followed by a fast-break steal and layup by Dawson with 59 seconds left in the period gave Amherst a 27-23 cushion.
• Harvey hit a jumper with 41 seconds left in half, before Green powered in a baseline bucket with 25 seconds left to play to set the halftime score at 29-25 in favor of the Purple & White.
• Amherst shot 31.3% from the field, 23.1% from long range, and 85.7% from the charity stripe in the first half. The Purple & White held a 12-8 edge in points in the paint, and a 10-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
• Benedictine shot 31% from the floor, 27.3% from three-point distance, and 100% from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes. The Eagles also held a 28-15 advantage in rebounds in the frame.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• In the second half, Reynolds scored a pair of quick baskets to knot the score at 29-29 1:15 into the period.
• A layup by Johnson gave the Eagles a 31-29 lead, before Dawson knocked down a triple to give Amherst a 32-31 edge.
• Reynolds and Johnson added a pair of buckets, and Reynolds hit the second of two free throws to make it 36-32 at the 16:10 mark to highlight an 11-3 run by the Eagles to start the stanza.
• A jumper by Harvey extended Benedictine's lead to 39-32 before Green hit the second of two foul shots with 13:30 remaining in the game. Less than a minute later, Green found Eric Conklin '17 underneath for a basket to pull the Purple & White to within four at 39-35.
• Another Conklin layup narrowed the gap to two, before a fast-break layup by Chaltin extended the Benedictine lead back to four with 10:32 on the clock.
• A swish from three-point range by Reid Berman '17 pulled Amherst to within one (43-42) before a nice give-and-go from George to Green evened the game at 44-44 minutes later.
• A swish from Blaszczyk from three-point range followed by a fast-break basket from Reynolds with an assist by Harvey gave the Eagles a 49-44 lead.
• McCarthy answered with a bucket in the paint, but Benedictine responded right back with a three point play by Blaszczyk to keep the advantage at six (52-46) with 6:45 remaining.
• Trailing by eight, Green delivered a pair of three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to pull Amherst to within four, before a layup by Dawson and a free throw a minute later set the score at 56-55 in favor of the Eagles.
• A Harvey layup at the 1:29 mark gave Benedictine a 59-55 lead, before McCarthy drilled a clutch trey 24 seconds later to set the score at 59-58.
• An offensive rebound by John Dodson with 38 seconds remaining allowed Harvey to then connect on a pair from the charity stripe to extend the Eagles' lead to 61-58 with just under 30 seconds on the clock.
• McCarthy then cruised into the lane and put in a left-handed layup with 15 seconds left to again pull the Purple & White to within one at 61-60.
• After Chaltin hit one of two from the free throw line, Blaszczyk chased down a loose rebound and made one from the line to give Benedictine a 63-60 lead with five seconds on clock.
• Amherst had one final shot at tying the game but Green's three-point attempt hit the back iron as the Eagles held on for a hard-fought 63-60 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Green finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting and hit three treys, while Dawson added 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field. McCarthy netted 12 points in the losing effort and hauled in six boards. Green led the Purple & White with eight rebounds.
• Amherst shot 34.9% from the field, 27.6% from three-point range and were out-rebounded 50-30.
• Blaszczyk led Benedictine with 15 points, while Harvey added 13. Johnson and Reynolds netted 12 each, while Johnson grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
• The Eagles shot 37.5% from the floor, 25% from three-point range and 73.9% from the free throw line to help seal the win.
• The game was tied six times and the lead changed hands 10 times with neither team owning more than an eight-point advantage.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Amherst now stands at 41-18 overall in NCAA Tournament games.
• Green has now scored 1,757 points for his career and will graduate as the program's second all-time leading scorer.  
• Head coach David Hixon's '75 overall record now moves to 767-271 over a span of 39 seasons.