MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Amherst College men's basketball team fell behind early and was unable to overcome a hot shooting performance from Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon, falling 82-69 at the Silloway Gymnasium.

Amherst dropped to a 9-4 record while the Cardinals remained unbeaten at 13-0. The Mammoths will travel to Lewiston to compete in their first NESCAC matchup of the season against Bates on Friday at 7 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

*An offensive Wesleyan bench sped past the Mammoths early, scoring 18 in the first eight minutes against 4 from Amherst. After struggling to find the rim in the first five minutes, senior C.J. Mitchell scored Amherst's first field goal with a three-pointer fed by junior Chris Hammond with 14:55 to play. Just before the ten-minute mark, sophomore Johnny McCain and senior Rkyer Vance scored a three-pointer and a floating jump shot respectively to trim Amherst's deficit to 18-9.

*With seven minutes remaining Hammond scored with a jumper and first-year Elias Chin made a layup to make it a seven-point game at 24-17. The Cardinals responded with a 6-0 run of their own as senior Nicky Johnson bucketed a jumper, and a technical foul from Amherst gave Wesleyan a slew of free throw points.

*Junior Giovanni Tam added 4 points to Amherst's tally in the final minute with a driving layup and two successful free throws, but three three-pointers from the Cardinals side in the last four minutes of the stanza allowed Wesleyan to close the half 45-26.

*Sophomore Marc Garraud came away with two back-to-back three-pointers at 16:12 to go and less than a minute later at 15:23 to trim the Cardinals' lead as the teams went back-and-forth in the second half. Hammond added two three-pointers of his own later into the half with 7:32 and 6:23 to play to ultimately cut Amherst's deficit to 14 points at 73-59 with five minutes remaining.

*Tam, Mitchell, and senior Bobby Sommers each added a layup to combine for a 6-0 run between 5:29 and 3:46 to make it a 12-point game at 73-61 with the final three minutes approaching.

*Garraud connected for a three-pointer in the final 34 seconds of the game to make it 80-69, but two final free throws from the Cardinals ended Amherst's momentum and closed the matchup 82-69.

BY THE NUMBERS:

*Wesleyan barely outshot Amherst on the floor with a 50% (30-60) accuracy compared to a 47.9% (23-48) average from the Mammoths. However, Amherst maintained a higher percentage of three-pointer conversions, 41.2% to 33.3%.

*Garraud scored 18 points, the second-most of the game, and also led with the most steals, making 3. Mitchell connected for the most assists on Amherst's side, passing for 5. Chin made the most rebounds for Amherst with 7, Sommers close behind him at 6.