ROCHESTER, Minn. — Defense has been the hallmark of the Amherst College women’s basketball team all season, and on Saturday night, it was the difference maker in a 65-45 victory over Bowdoin College as the Mammoths completed a perfect season with their second consecutive undefeated national championship.
Amherst (33-0) opened the fourth quarter on a 16-0 run to put a stranglehold on a game that they led by just four after thirty minutes. They eventually would outscore the Polar Bears by a 23-9 score in the final ten minutes, an identical margin by which they closed out Thomas More in the fourth quarter of their semifinals game.
Emma McCarthy scored a career-high 25 points and was named the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four Most Valuable Player. McCarthy finishes her two-year Amherst career having never lost a game for the Mammoths, who are on a program-record 66 game winning streak.
RELATED: Final bracket | Box score
Sophomore Hannah Fox was also named to the…