Women's Basketball Falls to Defending National Champs in Las Vegas

WESTFIELD, Mass.  –  Junior guard Hannah Fox (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) scored 43 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead #4 ranked Amherst College to a 104-79 win over Westfield State  in the D3hoops.com Tournament at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Fox finished 19-25 from the floor as the two-time defending national champion Mammoths shot 62.3 percent for the game, parlaying a decided size advantage into the win with 48 of 77 shooting from the floor.

The Owls got out to a quick start in the game, and held a 13-8 lead after a Jordan Halgas (Ware, Mass.) layup with 5:41 to play in the first quarter, but the Mammoths seized the lead for good on a Madeline Eck (Rye, N.Y.) three-pointer about a minute later.

Westfield trailed 30-20 at the end of the first quarter and 52-36 at the half.

The Owls (4-6) were led by 24 points from senior guard Lucy Barrett (Mt. Greylock/Williamstown, Mass.), who connected on 7-18 shots from the floor and eight of nine from the foul line.  Alyssa Camara (Quincy, Mass.)  and Allison Hester (Sutton, Mass.) each finished with nine for Westfield.

The Owls finished 7-30 shooting from three point range, and connected on 28 of 39 free throws.

Eck added 18 points for Amherst, which improved to 7-1 on the season. The Mammoths have won three national titles, including back to back titles in 2017 and 2018, when they posted perfect 33-0 records each year.

It was the first time the two Western Mass schools have played since the 2008-09 season.

Westfield, the highest scoring team in the country entering the tournament, at 92.9 points per game, may have registered a moral victory in tallying 79 points against an Amherst program that has consistently been one of the top defensive teams in the country.

Amherst, which ranked fourth in the nation this season, allowing opponents just 44 points per game, hadn't yielded as many as 79 points in a game since the final game of the 2012 season when St. Thomas scored 87 in the national third-place game.

Westfield State will be back in action in Las Vegas tomorrow, facing Buena Vista (IA) with a 1:00 p.m. eastern tip-off time.  Live coverage of the game is available at Westfield State Owls.com.