Mount Struggles on the Road at Amherst

By Kyle Teixeira

AMHERST, Mass. – The Mount Saint Mary College men’s basketball team lost on the road to Amherst College.

Mount Saint Mary took a road trip over Thanksgiving break to Massachusetts to take on Amherst College. Matthew Walsh scored the first points of the game for the Knights early on, but they would find themselves down 13-2 after that score. The Mammoths would extend their lead to 23-4 before the Mount was able to get something going. Matt Monaco scored a couple of buckets to jump-start the Knights’ offense midway through the half.

Mount Saint Mary was unable to defend Amherst’s three-point shooting throughout the game, with the Mammoths knocking down 17 threes and shooting 47.2%. The Knights began to pick things up towards the end of the first half as their threes now began to fall. They were able to end the half on an 8-0 run as they trailed 43-29 heading into the locker room.

Brenden Graham would drill a three-pointer out of the half after a steal from Justin Rivera, but things would quickly go south from here. The Mammoths would go on a 17-0 run before the Knights’ next basket, as Amherst began to completely take over in the second half. They held the Mount to just 28.57% shooting in the half, and only allowed one player to score in double digits. Daniel Herzner was that one player for Mount Saint Mary as he managed to score a season-high 11 points in just 15 minutes on efficient shooting splits.

Herzner was one of the lone bright spots for the Knights this contest as Amherst continued to pile onto their lead late into the game. The Mount did manage to find success at the free-throw line in the second period, going 10-11 from the line as they looked to attack the basket. The Knights would ultimately lose this match-up with Amherst College by the score of 95-53.