MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Sophomore guard Reeya Patel tallied 27 points and 8 rebounds to lead the Amherst College women's basketball team to a 78-61 win over Little Three rival Wesleyan University on Friday night at Silloway Gymnasium.

The Mammoths (7-0), ranked eighth in the nation in the latest D3hoops.com poll, have won nine straight games dating back to last season and 30 straight against the Cardinals (4-4). This game was a non-conference game between the two NESCAC foes with the conference meeting coming up on Jan. 28 at Amherst.

The Mammoths will now break for the holidays and return to action with a trip to Las Vegas to face Whittier in the D3hoops.com Classic on Tuesday, Dec. 28.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• Patel and Gabrielle Zaffiro made the first two baskets of the game and the Mammoths never trailed. An 11-0 run between the first and second quarters had the Amherst lead to double figures early in the second and the Mammoths went up by 20 when Courtney Resch's layup dropped in with 3:19 to go in the second before some late Wesleyan baskets made the score 33-17 at the half.
• The Cardinals outscored the Mammoths in the third quarter and got back within 6 points early in the fourth quarter but the Mammoths responded with an 11-2 run and had the lead back to 20 points in the final minute of the game.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Patel put up the best numbers of her young career in her seventh collegiate game with her 27 points on 9-of-12 field goal shooting, including a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, the most points by a Mammoth this season.
• First-year AnLing Vera scored 18 points, including a 9-of-10 performance at the free throw line, and added 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals, setting new career highs in both points and steals.
• Zaffiro added 10 points for her fourth double-figure scoring game of the season.
• The Mammoths shot 52 percent (28-of-54) from the field while holding the Cardinals to 29 percent (20-of-69) shooting, including 1-of-18 shooting for Wesleyan in the first quarter.