AMHERST — All five of the Amherst College women’s basketball team’s starters scored in double figures, led by Laura Mendell’s game-high 18 points, and the Mammoths limited Albertus Magnus to just one field goal in the fourth quarter to pull away with a 75-65 victory Tuesday night on Hixon Court at LeFrak Gymnasium.

Amherst’s 75 points were its most in a game this season by far as the Mammoths used their massive size advantage to outscore the Falcons 50-12 in the paint.

“We did a good job getting it inside, and I was proud of the team for executing that,” Amherst head coach G.P. Gromacki said. “We had to do that this game, and we’ve now won games three different ways.”

Indeed Amherst has, and Tuesday it relied heavily on the offensive end of the floor. During their first two contests, the Mammoths (3-0) scored less than 60 points, but gave up only 40 and 52, respectively. After surrendering the most points it has in a first quarter this season and trailing 22-19 heading into the second, it was evident Amherst needed to score to keep pace with Albertus Magnus.

Falcons guards Diamond White (17 points), Jakara Murray-Leach (17 points) and Caitlyn Scott (16 points) made it tough on the Mammoths’ defense early on.

“They spread the floor well, and they were really quick,” Gromacki said. “We don’t play many teams like that. They have some great 1-on-1 ball players that gave us some trouble tonight.”

Amherst had been in defensive battles its previous two games, and it turned the second quarter into one and immediately swung momentum in its favor.

The first dozen points of the frame went to the Mammoths, and they held the Falcons scoreless for over six minutes of game time before a pair of Murray-Leach free throws stopped the Albertus Magnus bleeding. With 1 minute, 15 seconds remaining until halftime, Amherst still hadn’t allowed a field goal in the second quarter.

A 43-31 advantage at the break was the result of the Mammoths’ swarming defense and relentless attacking of the paint.

“I don’t know if we took them for granted early, but we locked it in and focused in a lot more defensively in the second quarter,” Gromacki said. “That opened up our offense a lot more.”

The visitors weren’t done, however, even though Amherst opened up the lead to 17 points early in the third. Albertus Magnus went on a quick 8-0 spurt to get back within nine, 55-46, and cut further into the deficit thanks to the shooting and play making of White. All of a sudden Amherst’s comfortable lead dwindled down to two, 57-55, at the end of the third.

But once again, the Mammoths relied on their defense to close out the game in crunch time.

Albertus Magnus didn’t convert a fourth-quarter field goal until the 1-minute mark, and Amherst’s trio of Mendell, Sylvia Liddle and Annie McCarthy were simply too much of a handful for the Falcons. The Mammoths outscored Albertus Magnus 18-10 and gave up just the one field goal over the final 10 minutes.

Despite shooting just 3-for-17 (17 percent) from beyond the arc, Amherst found a way to win, a big credit to the way it spread the ball around. Aside from Mendell and her 18 points, Liddle put up 12 points and nine rebounds, McCarthy netted 11 and grabbed 10 boards, Maya Cwalina (10 points, 13 rebounds) notched a double-double and Kori Barach added 10 points and six rebounds.

“We have to shoot better from 3, but we have a lot of weapons, and it’s never one person,” Gromacki said.

Gromacki doesn’t often hold a lot of players on his roster on a yearly basis, but this season he admitted that the 10 on his team were fewer than he was anticipating. Amherst has played 5-on-5 just three times in practice this season because of the low numbers.

But Gromacki, now in year 17 at Amherst, reflected on his past teams that have made deep runs into the NCAA Division 3 Tournament, some of them coming with only 10 players on the roster. In 2018, Amherst went 33-0 and won the national title with that same number of players, and won a NESCAC championship en route to a Final Four appearance in 2013 with 10 as well.

“We were supposed to have 12, but this is the way it is,” Gromacki said. “But we like our 10, we like them a lot, and they’re great people. They love each other and that’s what matters… We’ve talked about [winning it all with 10 players in the past], but we’ve got a long ways to go. We never carry a big roster here anyway.”

Amherst (3-0) hosts Springfield College on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.

Amherst 78, Springfield 49

Following the women’s strong showing, the Mammoths’ men’s team dished out a near 30-point beat down to Springfield College on Tuesday night.

The Pride held an early 11-7 lead with 13 minutes left in the first half until Amherst guard C.J. Mitchell dropped in a 3-pointer, foreshadowing his flawless offensive night the rest of the way. After Mitchell’s bucket, the Mammoths never looked back.

Amherst outscored Springfield 35-11 – Mitchell’s four 3s and 14 points leading the way – over those next 13 minutes, taking a 42-22 lead into the locker rooms. Mammoths head coach Marlon Sears, now in his fifth year with the program, pointed to his team’s defensive effort as to why it was able to run away with Tuesday’s contest.

“Our defensive effort was terrific,” Sears said. “Our guys did an incredible job of trying to keep the basketball in front of them, and basically forced [Springfield] to take tough shots over us. And we did a good job of holding them to one shot.”

The second half featured more of the same defensive intensity. Six-foot-10 senior forward Will Scherer and 6-foot-10 junior Giovanni Tam harassed Springfield’s bigs down low, combining for six of Amherst’s seven blocks in the win.

Along with the length of wings Chris Hammond (6-foot-6) and Bobby Sommers (6-foot-4), Sears has the ability to implement small and big lineups on the floor – giving his team a ton of versatility on both ends of the floor.

“It’s been great for us,” Sears said of his team’s length. “I’ve kind of been waiting for these guys to grow up. These guys have been with us for 2-4 years now, and now it’s fun to watch them as juniors and seniors.”

Mitchell went on to bury a trio of more shots from behind the arc over the final 20 minutes en route to his game-high, 24-point performance, and Elias Chin (11 points) ripped off a stretch of six straight points in the latter stages of the game to stamp Amherst’s dominant win to improve to 2-1 this season.

“He’s a terrific kid, and I think about him when he was a freshman, he didn’t even get in the games,” Sears said. “Now, it just shows how kids evolve in your program, and it’s beautiful to watch.”

Amherst travels to Rhode Island College on Thursday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip as the Mammoths look to take another step forward before NESCAC play.

“If we can continue to compete and slowly get better as we get ready for NESCAC, we’ll be OK,” Sears said.