Amherst, Mass. - December 6, 2022 - The Springfield College men's basketball team rallied from a 17-point second-half deficit to topple Amherst College, 73-70, in LeFrak Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

For the Pride, it marked its first win over Amherst since 2016 when the Mammoths were No. 1 in the nation.  Springfield is now 2-5 on the season, while Amherst is 3-5.  

Daryl Costa (Providence, R.I.) returned to the lineup and netted a season-best 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Pride, while Zeke Blauner (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) added 17 points and Curtiss Blische (Barkhamstad, Conn.) chipped in 14 points.   Jack Meagher (Sydney, Australia) contributed 11 points and nine boards as a spark off the bench as the Pride outscored the hosts by a 46-28 margin in the second half. The Pride finished the night with 33 points off 24 Amherst turnovers. 

Just over midway through the first half, Amherst would open up a 28-13 cushion as they canned six three-pointers early in the game.  Springfield would get it to within single digits when Costa cut inside the lane for a finish at the 4:08 mark to make it 34-25, only to have Amherst close out the half on a 8-2 burst to own a 42-27 halftime lead.  The Mammoths would go 8-of-16 from beyond the arc in the first half and held a 24-11 advantage on the glass.

The hosts would earn their largest lead of the night at 48-31 just under three minutes into the second half, but the Pride would cut it to 54-47 when Costa cashed in from deep with 10:50 left in regulation. Blauner would pull up for an elbow jumper at 7:58 to make it a one-score game at 58-55, only to have Amherst push its lead back to 67-59 with just over three minutes left to play.  Springfield would then put together a gritty finish, outscoring Amherst by a 14-3 run to close out the game to rally for the victory.  A Blauner triple from the left wing with 40 seconds left gave Springfield its first lead of the day at 68-67, and after Amherst answered with a go-ahead jumper with 27 seconds on the clock, Blauner again came up with a three-pointer coming out a timeout that put the Pride ahead for good.

Springfield will play another nationally-ranked opponent on Saturday when it travels to face Williams.

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