AMHERST, Mass. – Senior captain Gabrielle Zaffiro tallied 20 points and 7 rebounds to lead the Amherst College women's basketball team to a 72-56 win over Middlebury College in NESCAC action on Tuesday night at LeFrak Gymnasium.

The Mammoths, ranked 11th in the nation in the latest D3hoops.com poll and 10th in the WBCA Coaches Poll, improved to 17-2 overall and 6-2 in NESCAC play with their seventh straight win and moved into second place in the NESCAC standings, setting up a first-place showdown with Trinity on Friday (Feb. 11) at 7 p.m. The Panthers fell to 11-9 overall and 5-3 in NESCAC play.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

* The Mammoths shot 10-of-16 from the floor in a high-scoring first quarter. Amherst scored the first five points and built a 24-15 lead after the first quarter. Zaffiro had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting by the end of the first.

* An 11-0 run in the second quarter, capped by back-to-back threes from first-year Kori Barach and senior captain Courtney Resch, stretched the Amherst lead to 18 and the Mammoths took a 43-26 lead to halftime.

* After the Mammoths shot 63 percent in the first half, the Panthers flipped the script in the third quarter, going 64 percent (7-of-11) from the field, while holding Amherst to 22 percent (4-of-18) shooting, but the Panthers could only turn that shooting advantage into a two-point edge on the scoreboard and the Mammoths held a 57-42 lead to start the fourth, buoyed in part by 6-of-7 free throw shooting in the third.

* The fourth quarter was tightly contested but the Amherst lead remained in the teens throughout with sophomore forward Nicole Stanford scoring her first collegiate points in the final minute to cap the scoring.



BY THE NUMBERS

* The Mammoths finished the game shooting 48 percent (27-of-56) from the field and 54 percent (7-of-13) from beyond the arc, while the Panthers shot 40 percent (20-of-50) in the game but were just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

* Zaffiro shot 7-of-12 from the floor and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc in her second 20-point game of the season. Joining her in double figures were fellow senior captains Resch with a season-high 15 points as well as 6 rebounds, and Dani Valdez with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

* Barach scored a career-high nine points while first-year guard AnLing Vera tallied nine assists, six rebounds and two steals.