AMHERST, Mass. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University women's basketball team had a Mammoth test on November 17 and saw firsthand why Amherst College has won two of the last three NCAA Division III national championships. Amherst, the preseason nationally No. 1 ranked team in Division III, closed the first quarter on a 16-2 run to break open a four-point game and never looked back, defeating NJCU, 80-24, in non-conference action at LeFrak Gymnasium.
 
After a season-opening 24-point win on November 13, NJCU falls to 1-1 overall while facing a No. 1 ranked team for the first time in its history. The game was the 2019-20 opener for Amherst (1-0) as the Mammoths and Gothic Knights met for the second year in a row. The game was the opener of a three-day New England road trip for NJCU.
 
NJCU trailed just 12-8 with 5:36 left in the first quarter after a layup by redshirt-freshman point guard/center Jasmine Reese (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) before the Mammoths went on the tear to lead 28-10 after 10 minutes. Amherst led 42-15 at the half following a low-scoring second quarter, outscored the Knights 22-4 in the third quarter and limited NJCU to nine points in the second half.
 
None of NJCU's starters played more than 23 minutes. Senior point guard Aaliyah McCrae (Paterson, NJ/Manchester Regional) came off the bench to score a team-high seven points. Reese had five points. Senior guard Hannah Johnson (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy), who had 23 points and 11 rebounds in her debut on November 13, had just two point and three rebounds and only attempted six points.
 
Preseason Third-Team All-American senior guard Hannah Fox (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) scored a game-high 16 points, leading four Mammoths in double-figures. Sophomore guard Gabrielle Zaffiro (Glen Head, N.Y.) scored 12 points, eight of them in the first quarter, and also had five of Amherst's 15 steals and a team-high three assists.
 
Defensively, Amherst held NJCU to just 7-47 from the floor and 0-8 from behind the three-point line. NJCU didn't convert from the field (0-12) in the third quarter, and also struggled at the foul line, going 10-23 at the stripe in the game.
 
Sophomore forward Dani Valdez (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) led all players with 11 rebounds to go with five points and two blocks. Amherst outrebounded NJCU, 56-30. Freshman forward Olivia Pachla (Marshfield, Mass.) and freshman guard Maggie Shipley (Arlington, Va.) had double-digit scoring nights in their collegiate debuts, each adding 10 points off the Amherst bench, which outscored the NJCU reserves 32-10. The Mammoths also led in points in the paint (36-10), second chance points (18-4) and points off of turnovers (23-6).
 
NOTABLES:

• Series: Second meeting. Amherst leads, 2-0.

 
UP NEXT:

• The Gothic Knights continue their New England roadtrip on Monday, November 18 where the women will visit The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. before heading to Connecticut where they'll face Wesleyan University on Tuesday, November 19 (7:00 PM) in Middletown, Conn.

 
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