NEW LONDON, Conn. – Despite an 11-point showing from senior Ryker Vance in the game's first half, Connecticut College pulled away from the Amherst College men's basketball team with a 62-47 win Saturday afternoon in the Luce Field House.

Amherst dropped to 11-11 overall and 2-6 in the NESCAC, while Conn improved to 12-11 and 4-5 in the conference. The Mammoths will return home to host Middlebury on Friday, where they'll battle the Panthers at 7 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

*The first ten minutes saw both sides trade buckets as layups from junior Drew Martin, junior Chris Hammond, and senior C.J. Mitchell offset two three-pointers from Conn senior Cam Schainfeld. Another layup from Schainfeld equalized the showdown at 13-13 with 8:43 to play.

*After enduring a scoring drought alongside an 8-point push from the Camels, senior Bobby Sommers drove into the paint and passed wide to an open Vance, who netted a jumper with 4:48 remaining to make it 19-15. Vance followed up just over a minute later with another jumper fed by first-year Elias Chin, scoring a free throw as the final four minutes of the stanza ticked down.

*Sophomore Johnny McCain fed the ball to Sommers at the wing to net a three-pointer with 1:11 remaining, weakening Conn's advantage to 27-21. Vance followed up with a jumper in the final four minutes to tally his 11^th point of the half and close the period 23-27.

*Down by 14 points halfway through the second stanza, Mitchell threaded the ball between defenders to find Hammond cutting into the paint. The forward drove to the block and spun around his defender to bucket a layup and draw a free throw to make it 45-34 with 10:03 to play.

*Mitchell and sophomore Marc Garraud partnered up to score 9 points for Amherst between 5:15 and 1:32. Mitchell fed to Garraud behind the arc to net a three-pointer with five minutes to play, and the duo fired into action again 1:10 later as Mitchell passed to Garraud at the top of the arc to score another three-pointer. At 1:32 to play, Mitchell assisted Garraud at the top of the arc for a third three-pointer in a row for the Amherst offense, shortening Conn's lead to 9 points as the final 90 seconds counted down.

*Free throws dominated the rest of the game and stalled the Mammoth's offensive momentum. Four final free throws from Conn punctuated their 62-47 win.

BY THE NUMBERS:

*The Camels held an advantage in field goals and three-pointers, shooting 34.5% (20-58) of field goals compared to 28.6% (14-49) from Amherst, and 28.6% of three-pointers compared to 22.2% from the Mammoths. Amherst converted a higher percentage of free throws, shooting 88.2% compared to 85.7% from Conn.

*Schainfeld was the game's highest scorer with 19 points. Off the Amherst bench, Vance netted the most points with 13. Defensively, Chin led in rebounds with 10 while Vance made the most blocks with 2.