WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Sophomore Will Scherer posted a double-double Monday night, pacing the Amherst College men's basketball team to a 72-57 road victory over Westfield State in the Woodward Center. 

With the victory, the Mammoths improve to 7-11 overall while the Owls fall to 3-14. Amherst is at NESCAC and Little 3 rival Wesleyan Friday at 7 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* Amherst led by just a point at halftime, up 34-33. But a 16-3 run to start the second half helped the visitors pull away for the victory

* Scherer, who led Amherst with 20 points and 12 rebounds, got the second half started by converting a lay-up after Bobby Sommers found him in the paint with a pass. The big man then came up with a steal at the other end and fed the ball to Sommers, who scored the fastbreak lay-up for a 38-33 lead. 

* The run continued with a Noah Helmke three-pointer. Following a stop on the defensive end, Scherer converted another lay-up from the paint. Scherer then picked off his own miss and scored the putback for a 45-34 lead with 14:25 left in the game. 

* A C.J. Mitchell three-pointer off the right elbow made it 50-36 and Canin Reynolds subsequently followed up a Westfield trey with his first three-ball of the night to make it 53-39 with 11:40 to go. 

* The Owls hung around, getting back within 8 points on a couple of occasions, but an 8-0 run late in the game sealed the deal for Amherst. Helmke had two free throws and a turnaround jumper sandwiched two Scherer foul line makes, and Reynolds scored a banked floater from the baseline for the Mammoths' biggest lead of the night, 66-50.

BY THE NUMBERS:

*  Scherer hit on 8 of 9 field goal attempts in the game and added 4 steals and 3 assists to his season-high 20 points and 12 rebounds. Helmke had 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the floor, and Sommers added 12 points and a team-high 5 assists.

* Scherer scored 14 of his 20 in the second half when as a team, the Mammoths shot 65 percent (13 of 20) from the floor while holding the host Owls to 28 percent (7 of 25) and outrebounding them 19-11 over the final 20 minutes. 

* In totality, Amherst shot 54 percent (27 of 50) from the floor in the game, and 7 of 17 from beyond the three-point line.