Amherst, Mass. - November 11, 2022 - The Springfield College women's basketball program lost in the final seconds, 54-50, on the road at Amherst College on Saturday night in non-conference play. 

No. 16 Springfield levels out at 1-1 and Amherst, who was a national semifinalist a season ago and ranked No. 9 in the D3hoops.com Preseason Poll, earns its first win of the season. The Pride won the rebounding battle, 42-41. Springfield dominated the paint scoring with 30 points in the paint and scored 14 points off of turnovers. 

Sam Hourihan (Bridgewater, Mass.) led Springfield with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double. Angela Czeremcha (West Springfield, Mass.) tallied 12 rebounds to go along with 10 points. 

Reeya Patel led all scorers with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Anling Vera contributed 10 points for the Mammoths in the win. 

Amherst ripped out to a 10-2 burst at the 5:33 mark in the first quarter after an inside bucket from Abbey Skinner. The Pride brought the score to 14-10 with 1:54 to play in the quarter with a Hourihan bucket, but the Mammoths drilled a pair of threes to keep a 20-10 advantage after the first. 

At 5:52 in the second quarter, Patel finished in the paint to give Amherst its biggest lead of the game at 26-14. Rachel Vinton (Rutland, Mass.) attacked the basket with 2:07 left in the half, which cut the deficit to 26-21 for Springfield. A short 6-2 run for Amherst kept the Mammoths ahead 32-23 at the break. 

At 6:34 in the third, Lindsay Laughlin (Ellington, Conn.) dumped it into Hourihan for the high-low and cut the game to just three. For the remainder of the quarter, Amherst and Springfield traded baskets, however the Mammoths were able to pull away with another 10-point lead following a three from Skinner with 49 seconds left.

The Pride would not go away in the fourth, cutting the deficit to three on three separate occasions. Despite the outstanding efforts to close the gap, Amherst responded with timely threes. With just 16 seconds to go, Stefany Padula (Franklin, Mass.) came off a screen and stuck a wing three to make it a 53-50 game and keep Springfield in striking distance. 

On the next possession, The Pride forced a turnover on an inbounds play and came down the floor to tie the game in the final seconds with Vinton finding a great look for Hourihan on the wing, but came up short leading to the close loss in a nationally-ranked showdown. 

The Pride will face off with Rowan tomorrow at 3 pm in the second day of the Amherst College Tip Off Tournament.