WORCESTER, Mass. -- Reeya Patel scored 21 points and Kori Barach added 18 Monday as the #15 Amherst College women's basketball team rolled to a 72-53 victory over Worcester State on the Lancers'  John P. Brissette Court.

The Mammoths improved to 11-3 overall with the victory. Worcester State fell to 4-10 with the loss. Amherst is back in action with a conference match-up vs. Tufts at home Friday. Tip-off is 7 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* Amherst controlled play from the outset, jumping out to a 24-12 lead after the first quarter. The Mammoths hit on 9 of their 18 shots in the quarter, including 2 of 4 of from beyond the arc. Leading 11-8, the Mammoths constructed an 8-0 run to go up by 11. AnLing Vera made a lay-up to get rhe run started. Moments later, Patel grabbed a rebound of her own miss and converted the putback for a 16-8 lead. Barach made a three-pointer following a Maya Cwalina rebound on the defensive end, giving Amherst a 19-8 lead with 3:54 eft in the stanza. 

* Anna Tranum had a big impact in the second quarter. With the lead down to 10, she came up with a steal that led to a Patel lay-up. Tranum had a lay-up with 6:04 left and then with an even 5 minutes to go, hit a jumper off a Cwalina pass that made it 32-16 Amherst. The Mammoths went into the halftime break up 36-24. 

* Amherst's lead had been whittled down to seven with 5:02 remaining in the contest, but the Mammoths put together a 14-0 run to take a commanding 72-51 lead over a 3:59 minute span. Patel made a jumper with 4:24 to go that bumped up the Mammoth lead to nine, and following a Lancer turnover, Vera nailed a three-point attempt that made it 12. Barach followed a Worcester Sate miss with a three of her own for a 15-point lead. Following a defensive rebound from Alix Stuart, Patel hit another jumper. With 1:48 remaining, Barach came up with a steal and went coast-to-coast for the lay-in and a 70-51 lead. Two free throws from Brooke Ingemi made it a 21-point lead with 1:03 remaining in the game. 

BY THEE NUMBERS:

* Stuart had a team-high 11 rebounds and 4 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Barach added 8 rebounds to her 11 points and led the team in steals with 4. Vera had 12 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds in the win. Tranum notched 8 points. 

* Amherst shot 42.9 percent (6 of 14) from beyond the arc in the game, and 41.8 percent (28 of 67) in total. They committed just 10 turnovers.