The Lord Jeffs are among the final four in Division III for the fifth consecutive year.
Bridget Crowley enters the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship averaging a double-double in tournament play.
By PAUL BOWKER
HOLLAND, Mich. – One year ago, Minnechaug Regional graduate Bridget Crowley was on the Amherst College bench.
This time around, the 6-foot-1 senior forward enters the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship averaging a dominant double-double in tournament play. The Lord Jeffs (30-1), who are among the final four for the fifth consecutive year and seeking their second national title in three years, will play the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (25-6) in the national semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
“It’s been an amazing season,” Crowley said after practice Friday at DeVos Fieldhouse. “We consider ourselves lucky in some ways to have gotten to the point where we’re at. It’s taken a lot of hard work on our part.”
The Lord Jeffs’ chase after a national title may be the most impressive in coach G.P. Gromacki’s six-year run at Amherst because of all the players he had to replace. The reason Crowley didn’t start last year? Amherst had five seniors in the starting lineup, a group that had won an NCAA Division III-record 124 wins over four years.
A totally new starting lineup has delivered a 30-win season and the extension of a home-win streak to 86. Crowley, and senior guards Marica Voigt and Jasmine Hardy have already broken the national record for wins by one class over four years. It stands at 125 with at least two more games to play.
“Bridget, Jasmine and Marcia are three of the best leaders I’ve ever coached,” Gromacki said. “It helps having three leaders on your team that can help you on and off the court. They’ve really put this team together and kept them focused all season long. We do have talent, but it takes a little more than that sometimes to get there.”
Amherst is the only returning team from the final four in 2012, when the Lord Jeffs lost in the semifinals. For just the third time in Division III history, two of the four teams are from the same conference. Joining Amherst in the field is New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rival Williams College. It is a heated rivalry that was fueled even more this season by Amherst’s only loss, 71-51 to Williams, followed by Amherst’s 53-38 victory over the Ephs in the NESCAC championship game.
If both Amherst and Williams (the Ephs face top-ranked, unbeaten DePauw University) were to win Friday, they would meet in Saturday’s national championship game.
“That would be a wild matchup,” said Williams coach Pat Manning.
In fact, it was Amherst’s loss to Williams that may have turned a good season for the Lord Jeffs into a great one. It was Amherst’s first regular-season loss in two years.
“Our loss against Williams hit us hard,” Crowley said. “I think in a lot of ways, it was a blessing in disguise. It really helped us. It really opened our eyes to the fact that we can be beat. If we don’t come every game and play to our capabilities, then we will be beaten.”
Since then, the Lord Jeffs have won eight straight, including 59-45 over Widener on Saturday for a regional championship. Crowley pulled down a career-best 16 rebounds in that game and Voigt, the team’s leading scorer with 12.7 points per game, scored 19.