Senior co-captain John Bedford (Ridgewood, NJ) gave a spectacular performance, dropping 30 points on the Continentals on scorching 11-for-16 shooting, while fellow senior co-captain John Casnocha (San Francisco, CA) canned five trifectas en route to 16 points and junior Dan Wheeler (Bloomington, MN) added 16 as well. Amherst shot just over 50% (29-for-57) from the field, assisting on 18 buckets, led by sophomore point guard Andrew Olson’s (San Diego, CA) game-high five dimes. The Jeffs improved to 26-2 with the win, extending their win streak to 16 games and pulling within one victory of the school’s all-time record. Bedford, Casnocha and fellow seniors Keith Zalaski (Simsbury, CT) and Ray Corrigan (Queens, NY) extend their Amherst-record for wins by a senior class to 103, and Bedford vaulted his way to fifth on the school’s all-time leading scorers list, surpassing Robb Caseria ’82 with his 1,455th career point.
Hamilton wraps up its season at 23-5, despite dominating the offensive glass with 24 offensive boards, including eight by senior Staunton Peck (Winnetka, IL). Junior Tsakane Ngobeni (Soweto, South Africa) and senior Tim Welchons (New Hartford, NY) did the majority of the damage, notching 21 and 16 points, respectively, but a dismal outside shooting performance (two-for-17 from three) sealed the Continentals’ fate.
Both squads displayed jitters early, missing a combined five shots in two minutes of scoreless basketball to open the game. Bedford ended the drought with a three-ball and the Jeffs fallowed suit, building an early 10-4 lead. Hamilton never really got the engine running in the first half as they didn’t reach double digits until the 9:30-mark and suffered through over four minutes without a bucket, allowing Amherst to mount a 10-point advantage. Junior Nick Jones (Washington, DC) tried to rally the troops, hammering home a put-back dunk to end the scoring famine, but the Jeffs limited the Continentals to just 25.8% (eight-for-31) shooting and forced nine of their 13 turnovers in the opening frame to take a 37-23 edge into the half.
Amherst kept the heat on in the second session, steadily increasing its lead over the first eight minutes and hitting the 20-point mark, 56-36, with an old-fashioned three-point play by sophomore Matt Goldsmith (Morristown, NJ). Hamilton would pull within 19 with 6:21 left to play, but that was as close it would get the rest of the way. Bedford was seven-for-10 after the break, capping his showcase with a three from the right corner off a baseline feed from Casnocha.
The other Round of 16 matchup in the Eastern Sectional will be between St. John Fisher and Utica College. St. John Fisher advanced with a 71-50 victory over visiting Norwich University, while Utica topped second-round host WPI, 76-58. This will be the fourth meeting of the year between the two schools, which both hail from the Empire 8 Conference.
Official Basketball Box Score
Hamilton College vs Amherst College
3/4/06 7 p.m. at Amherst, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: Hamilton College 23-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
10 Tim Welchons........ * 6-14 1-3 3-5 1 4 5 1 16 1 1 0 2 34
21 Phil Valenti........ * 2-9 0-3 0-0 4 3 7 4 4 0 0 0 2 32
24 Nick Jones.......... * 3-9 0-2 1-3 5 3 8 1 7 2 1 0 0 34
34 Staunton Peck....... * 3-9 1-3 1-2 8 2 10 2 8 1 7 0 2 32
44 Tsakane Ngobeni..... * 7-15 0-3 7-7 2 3 5 3 21 0 3 2 1 35
12 Zarrette Rogers..... 0-3 0-2 0-0 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 15
23 Jeff Bernardi....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
30 Rich Kohnke......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
40 Giorgi Chavleishvili 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 6
50 Harlee Wood......... 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 2 2 0 1 0 0 9
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 22-64 2-17 13-19 24 17 41 18 59 6 13 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-31 25.8% 2nd Half: 14-33 42.4% Game: 34.4% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-10 10.0% 2nd Half: 1-7 14.3% Game: 11.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-7 85.7% 2nd Half: 7-12 58.3% Game: 68.4% 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Amherst College 26-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
22 John Bedford........ * 11-16 3-5 5-5 1 4 5 0 30 2 3 0 0 33
33 John Casnocha....... * 5-11 5-7 1-2 1 3 4 2 16 2 3 0 3 30
34 Dan O'Shea.......... * 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1 3 3 2 2 0 0 0 16
41 Dan Wheeler......... * 6-11 1-3 3-3 4 1 5 1 16 3 2 1 0 32
5 Andrew Olson........ * 3-4 0-1 2-2 0 1 1 4 8 5 0 0 1 27
15 Adolphe Coulibaly... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 3
20 Tim McLaughlin...... 0-1 0-1 1-2 0 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 0 14
21 Ray Corrigan........ 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 2 1 1 0 0 14
24 Brian Baskauskas.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
30 Matt Goldsmith...... 1-5 0-2 1-1 0 4 4 1 3 1 1 0 0 19
31 Keith Zalaski....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
32 Fletcher Walters.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
4 Mike Salerno........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2
44 Kevin Hopkins....... 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1
55 Brandon Jones....... 1-3 0-0 1-1 1 1 2 2 3 1 0 1 0 4
TEAM................ 3 2 5
Totals.............. 29-57 9-20 16-18 12 23 35 17 83 18 12 4 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-29 44.8% 2nd Half: 16-28 57.1% Game: 50.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-13 38.5% 2nd Half: 4-7 57.1% Game: 45.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-7 85.7% 2nd Half: 10-11 90.9% Game: 88.9% 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: James Byrne, Vince Carnevale, John Gill
Technical fouls: Hamilton College-None. Amherst College-None.
Attendance: 1200
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Hamilton College.............. 23 36 - 59
Amherst College............... 37 46 - 83