January 7, 2023

By Riley Zayas

The NESCAC always delivers. Conference play opened for one of the nation’s best leagues on Friday night, and though Trinity, Bowdoin, and Tufts all won by double-digit margins, the battle between #15 Amherst and Williams certainly was the sort of #NESCACtion we are used to.

• Amherst survived, but only narrowly, winning 60-57, after having dropped two of their previous three. Honestly, Williams was very impressive in my opinion, and led 31-30 at the half. Credit Amherst for an improved second-half defensive effort, because in the first two quarters, Williams kept finding open shots, particularly from beyond the arc and near the baselines. Neither head coach went to the bench much at all. In fact, AnLing Vera and Kori Barach played a full 40 minutes for Amherst, and Devin Biesbrock was in for all 40 for Williams. Amherst played just six, Williams, seven. In many ways, it was like a chess match back and forth, with Williams head coach Pat Manning and Amherst’s J.P. Gromacki both known as exceptional strategists. To me, the pivotal point came with under 30 seconds left, as Williams had the ball, trailing by two, but turned it over. Amherst made its free throws, going up by four, and though Williams hit a three and actually had a chance to tie it with five seconds left, it felt like the momentum Amherst gained off of that turnover was enough for the Mammoths to pull it out. Still, I was super impressed by what I saw from Williams.
• The other notable NESCAC duel (and really the only other nationally-relevant score that wasn’t a one-sided result) was Middlebury’s 64-56 win over Hamilton. Those of you who have read me throughout this year know that I really like the product Hamilton has been putting on the floor, especially with a young group. I think they have a chance to make some noise after watching how closely they played Baldwin-Wallac, Ithaca, Rochester, just to name a few. But Middlebury proved to be the better team last night, shooting 41% compared to Hamilton’s 28%. The fact that Hamilton was 19-of-66 from the field and 2-of-18 from beyond the arc, and still was in contention in the game’s final minutes is crazy. Typically, especially after trailing by 18 at the half, a team will not get much closer. But with 3:36 left, it was a five-point game, a testament to Hamilton’s resilience. That said, Middlebury’s first half was nothing short of remarkable, as the Panthers were successful in virtually every facet of the contest. Solid, consistent, halfcourt defense can take you a long way.

Those were couple of games that caught my eye But the slate I woke up this morning thinking about was the one set for today. As of yesterday, Scott Peterson (check out his analytical work on D3 WBB here) had 24 games for today where the average Massey rating of the opponent was less than 80. Here are a few how of my thoughts on those highly-anticipated showdowns…

• There are several contenders for the “Game of the Day”, but I really want to see how the matchup between #25 Bowdoin and #22 Trinity (CT) turns out. At this point, these might be the two best teams in the NESCAC. Trinity is so good at getting the ball into Reilly Campbell and others in the post, which has led to a league-leading field goal percentage of 44.5%. Bowdoin isn’t far behind at 40.8%. Where Bowdoin really hurt Springfield, in my opinion, was when shots started falling from beyond the arc. Bowdoin shoots a conference-best 33.6% from three-point range, and they will need to take advantage of that to win on the road today. Also notable, these are two top rebounding teams in the league, so the battle on the boards will be one you’ll want to be paying attention to. 3 pm EST tip…watch here:
• Once the final buzzer sounds in Connecticut, you will have a few minutes before the final “big game” of the night starts in Wisconsin. #17 UW-Whitewater travels to #9 UW-Eau Claire in a highly-anticipated WIAC battle. The WIAC is so deep that it would be an exaggeration to say this is the conference regular season title on the line, but…it will still play a role in who gets ranked ahead of who in the regional rankings, and for Whitewater, a team with a few more losses on its resume than UWEC, winning here would be huge. Right now, UWEC has the best offense in the WIAC to go along with the No. 8 defense in a conference of eight teams. Whitewater hasn’t been great defensively either, but has converted shots at a consistent rate. I’d like to see a better performance from the Warhawks than what we saw against UWSP on Wednesday, and it is going to take a top-level defensive performance to slow Jessie Ruden and this Blugold offense. The game will probably hinge on that matchup.
• UAA play begins today, and two great matchups are in the schedule. Both would be games in which I can see a clear favorite, but would not rule an upset out of the question to any degree. #10 Chicago visits WashU and #12 Rochester goes to Emory. Regardless of how good you are, as we saw on Wednesday of this week, winning conference games on the road is tough. Earlier this week, there were seven Massey teams who entered their games ahead of the opponent by at least 100 spots in Massey ratings, but ended up winning by only seven points or less. All were playing on the road. For Emory and Rochester, Claire Brock cannot carry the weight of having to “be” Emory’s offense. By this point, teams are keying in on her, and it’s good to see some other shooters stepping up around her. The Eagles will have to stop Katie Titus in the paint, which is not an easy task. I see a high-scoring duel playing out in Atlanta. Chicago will not have it easy either, because of the way WashU matches up with teams in the post. Maya Arnott and Nailah McBeth are forces for the Bears on both ends of the floor, which may mean Chicago shoots more threes in this game than its average. I see at least one of these being decided by single digits.
• And speaking of going on the road, after the way Williams played Amherst so closely last night, I’ll be interested to see how the Mammoths fair against a talented Middlebury team on the road for the second straight day. As I mentioned, Middlebury played Babson tough last week and beat a talented Hamilton team last night. An upset is not out of the question here either, especially if Alexa Mustafaj can parlay here 21-point performance into another strong showing this afternoon.
• If you’re looking for more of an under-the-radar matchup, tune into the battle of the Concordias in NACC action. Concordia (WI) visits Concordia-Chicago in what could be a pretty interesting duel. Concordia-Chicago, led by Kate Benes (25.5 PPG) is 6-0 in league play, and Concordia (WI), a longtime power in the conference, is 4-2. Still, don’t count Concordia (WI) out here. The first meeting between these two was won by Chicago, 67-63. And Benes is on track to be an All-America selection, which is reason enough to watch for a least a few minutes, with a 5:15 p.m. EST tip. She shoots the ball so well and is versatile as a guard; it’s incredible to watch.

I’m going to stop there, but be sure to head over to D3hoops.com’s scoreboard for all the latest updates. Follow me on Twitter as well (@ZayasRiley). I’ll do my best to tweet score updates and notables as the day progresses. And of course, I’ll recap my thoughts on today in a post tomorrow so come back for that! Have a great day! God Bless.