AMHERST, Mass. -- First-year Chris Hammond scored a career-high 18 points Thursday night, leading the Amherst College men's basketball team to a 71-61 win over Eastern Nazarene College in LeFrak Gymnasium. 

The Mammoths improved to 4-5 with the win while Eastern Nazarene slipped to 5-5 overall. Amherst is off until December 28th, when it travels to California to take on UC Santa Cruz at 4 p.m. (EST)

Hammond was one of four Mammoths in double figures. Charlie Randall netted 13 points and both Bobby Sommers and Canin Reynolds scored 10. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* A Hammond three from the left corner opened the Mammoths' second-half scoring and gave them a six-point lead at 45-39. JuWan Moore hit his own three moments later to cut the Amherst lead to three again. Then a Bernie McGuinnis trey from the right corner with just over 17 minutes remaining tied the score at 45-all. 

* A Moore lay-up tied the score at 47 before a decisive 11-0 Amherst run began. Drew Martin got it started, using his length to lay in a bucket from the paint. Back-to-back Hammond threes, the second following a Ryker Vance steal -- made it 55-47 with 14:19 left. CJ Mitchell then drained a 3 set up by Hammond for a 58-47 advantage. After ENC cut its deficit back to 10, a Randall jumper from the foul line made it 61-49. A thunderous Sommers dunk made it 63-51 with just under seven minutes remaining.

* A late Lion run brought them within six points, but Hammond struck again with 1:32 to go, nailing a trey attempt from the left corner for a 70-61 lead. 

* The two teams virtually traded buckets over the first 12 minutes.  Hammond's three-pointer made it 22-19. Sommers grabbed a defensive rebound on the next Lions' possession, but both Reynolds and Randall missed their trey attempts and the Mammoths' lead remained three. Hammond drove the lane and scored a difficult basket over two Lion defenders to make it 24-21. It was 26-21 following another Randall short jumper. Randall then put one home from a short distance off a nice Reynolds feed for a 28-21 Amherst advantage. A Sommers' floater in the lane with 4:52 remaining made it 30-21 and forced ENC to call a timeout. 

A Reynolds three-pointer made it 33-25 with 3:39 left. The Lions made a small charge to get back within three points following a Casey McGhee steal and dunk with 1:43 to go. A big Dan Schlakman offensive rebound in the closing seconds led to another Reynolds' trey from the top of the key and gave the Mammoths a 42-32 lead but after a Kobe Jones banked trey at the buzzer, Amherst went into halftime with a seven-point lead at 42-35. 



BY THE NUMBERS:

* Amherst outscored the Lions 22-14 from the paint in the first half and shot 50 percent (17of 34) from the floor while outrebounding Eastern Nazarene, 25-15. The Mammoths finished with a 45-31 advantage on the glass. Vance led Amherst with 8 rebounds and also had 5 points in the win. 

* The Mammoths hit on 5 of 13 three-point attempts in the second half, 38.7 percent, and shot 45.4 percent from the floor for the game. Reynolds had 5 assists and 3 rebounds to go with his 10 points. Schlakman did not score but had 7 rebounds and 3 assists in the win. 

* Amherst had six blocks in the game, 3 from Randall, 2 from Vance, and one from Hammond, compared to zero for the Lions.