WATERVILLE, Maine - The No. 5/6 Amherst College women's basketball team downed NESCAC rival Colby College, 65-54 on Sunday afternoon in Waterville, Maine.

With the win, Amherst improves to 18-2 overall, 5-2 in NESCAC action, while Colby moves to 13-6 on the season, 3-4 in league play. 

In a tightly contested first half of action, Amherst shot 40.7% from the field and 42.9% from beyond the arc, including a pair of treys from both Hannah Peterson '17 and Ali Doswell '17.

Peterson, Ali Doswell and Meredith Doswell '17 each finished with six points for the Jeffs in the first half, while Cheyenne Pritchard '16 added five points in the first 20 minutes. Amherst used a balanced attack, which also featured 13 bench points, to help propel the Purple & White to a 32-27 lead at intermission. 

Colby shot 34.8% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range led by Brooke Chandor's 2-for-4 effort from long distance resulting in seven first half points. Chandor added five boards, Carlyanne Wolfington and Mia Diplock chipped in six points each, and Marykate Caverly added five points in first half action for the Mules. 

After an early 5-0 run to start the game by Colby, the Jeffs answered with a 25-6 run capped by a Meredith Doswell layup with 9:28 to play in the half to set the score at 25-11. A three-pointer by the Mules' Caitlyn Nolan cut the lead to four (27-23) with 4:22 to play in the stanza, but Colby got no closer in the half as the Jeffs held a five-point advantage at halftime. 

In the second half, Amherst came out firing as senior forward Megan Robertson powered in a layup 12 seconds into the half to ignite a 25-7 run over the first 10 minutes of the frame to give Amherst a 57-34 lead and did not look back, pulling away to an eventual 65-54 victory. 

Ali Doswell shot 5-for-9 from the field, had six rebounds, and four assists; Robertson was 5-for-7 from the field, grabbed six boards, and blocked two shots; Peterson had nine points and four assists; and Jackie Nagle '18 was 4-for-5 from the field for nine points. Pritchard finished with eight points and four assists in the winning effort.

Wolfington led Colby with with 14 points, while Chandor added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Diplock added 11 points and three assists, while Nolan chipped in eight points.

Amherst shot 50% (26-for-52) from the field and held the Mules to 29.5% (13-for-44) shooting and were 82.1% (23-for-28) from the foul line.

Amherst returns to NESCAC action Friday, Feb. 6 when it hosts Conn. College at 7 p.m. at LeFrak Gymnasium.