AMHERST, Mass. – Colby never recovered from an eight-point halftime deficit and lost to Amherst 69-54 Sunday in the championship game of the New England Small College Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament.

The second-seeded White Mules (23-4) trailed 34-26 at halftime and fell behind 50-36 with 8:25 to play against the top-seeded Jeffs (27-0) before going on a 10-2 run in the next three minutes.

But Amherst responded with nine consecutive points to take a 61-46 lead with 1:52 remaining.

Shannon Finucane scored 21 points to lead the Jeffs, who earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Divison III tournament. Caroline Stedman scored 12 and Lem Atanga McCormick added nine points and 10 rebounds.

Alison Cappelloni scored 14 points for the Mules.

 

BASEBALL

NORTH CAROLINA 8, MAINE 4: The Tar Heels (6-1) took a 4-3 lead on Ryan Graepel’s RBI double in the fifth and held off the Black Bears (1-5) at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Joe Mercurio hit a solo home run for the Black Bears and Myckie Lugbauer had two RBI.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

(14) MICHIGAN STATE 53, (3) PURDUE 44: Raymar Morgan had 16 points and 11 rebounds to help visiting Michigan State (22-7, 12-4 Big Ten) beat Purdue (24-4, 12-4).

 

(5) DUKE 67, VIRGINIA 49: Kyle Singler scored 21 points to lead Duke (25-4, 12-2 ACC) past Virginia (14-13, 5-9) at Charlottesville, Va.

 

(20) TEMPLE 65, LA SALLE 53: Juan Fernandez sank seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points, and Temple (24-5, 12-2 Atlantic-10) rolled over La Salle (11-17, 3-11) at Philadelphia.

 

XAVIER 78, (23) RICHMOND 76: Terrell Holloway scored seven of his 24 points during the second overtime as Xavier (21-7, 12-2 Atlantic-10) held off Richmond (22-7, 11-3) at Cincinnati.