AMHERST, Mass. – Conventional wisdom in basketball has teams employing quickness and athleticism on the perimeter, and size inside. Amherst College adheres to a different philosophy, and because of it, is able to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament every season.

Returning four starters from a team which lost only one game in last year's regular season, No. 2 nationally-ranked Amherst scored the first 17 points of the second quarter and eased to an 86-47 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Thursday night in a non-conference game at LeFrak Gymnasium.

Utilizing four perimeter players – three of which stand 5-foot-9 inches or taller – and quickness and athleticism inside – Amherst turned to eight different players to contribute at least one three-point field goal to remain undefeated at 5-0 and defeat Eastern (3-2) for the tenth straight time in this series.

At right: Kelly Reardon

Able to easily shoot over Eastern's shorter guards with a cadre of players featuring a decidedly superior reach, Amherst outscored Eastern 48-6 from behind the arc, and although the Warriors featured a slim rebounding advantage, Amherst's quick, more athletic inside players regularly positioned themselves to convert uncontested layups.

Amherst's more deliberate approach was in contrast to Westfield State's transitional, run-and-gun style, but produced similar results – lots of points. On Tuesday, Westfield put up 101 points in a seven-point victory over Eastern. The Warriors, traditional defensive stalwarts in the Little East Conference, have yielded an average of  93.5 points in two recent losses which have soiled their early 3-0 record against inferior competition.

Senior guard Jordyn Nappi's (Southington) only three-point field goal of the game opened the scoring on the first possession of the game, but Amherst  answered with an inside bucket on its initial possession, and  the first of Amherst's 12 steals (accounting for many of Eastern's 22  turnovers), and a second-chance three-point field goal gave the hosts the lead 63 seconds into play and they would never trail again.

Six-foot-one inch junior perimeter player Hannah Hackley of Amherst put her team's offense into overdrive soon after by scoring 13 of her team's ensuing 16 points (ten straight) to stake her team to an 11-point, 21-10 lead midway through the first session. Hackley scored nine of her points on two three-point field goals and a conventional three-point play, and also had a putback in that stretch.

In all, Amherst held Eastern without a field goal and outscored the Warriors 18-4 over five minutes in the first quarter to break a tie and moved out to a 14-point, 26-12 lead late in the period, then ran off the first 17 points of the second quarter as the lead ballooned to 31, 47-16, with six minutes left in the half.

Shooting just 30 percent from three-point range through its first four games, Amherst canned 16 of 30 attempts from long range (53.3 percent) Thursday, getting mostly open looks around the perimeter. Amherst, which has reached the national semifinals in six times in the last eight years (winning the title in 2011) and captured 30 of 32 games a year ago,  was  5-of-6 from three-point range in the first quarter against Eastern, shooting 50 percent overall over the first ten minutes.

Hackley had 18 points (7-of-10 FG) and Ali Doswell 13 for Amherst, each going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Nappi was the only Eastern starter in double figures, with ten points. Five-foot-10 inch freshman center Mya Villard (Cromwell) had eight points and a game-high eight rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench for Eastern.

At right: Freshman Sabrina LeMere (15) uses a pick from freshman Nicole Kradas (11) to drive to the basket in the fourth quarter Thursday.

Six of the ten players to see time for Eastern in the game are in their first seasons with the Warriors, including all five bench players. The freshmen saw the lion's share of the time after the contest had deteriorated  in the second half, with freshmen Nicole Kradas (West Hartford), Sabrina LeMere (North Branford), Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire), Elise McGovern (Raynham, MA) and Villard forming the five-person unit at one point in the fourth quarter. The left-handed LeMere scored both of her baskets on left-sided drives to the hoop.

Seven different players – four of them freshmen – contributed to Eastern's 14-point final quarter, the highlight coming when junior point guard Kelly Reardon (Holyoke, MA) nailed her only three-point field goal on her only try, then completed a rare four-point play by sinking the free throw awarded when she was fouled by freshman Hannah Fox. Reardon  finished with eight points and only one turnover in 26 minutes – the fifth time in six games she has turned the ball over less than twice.

First-year sophomore post player Kelsey Santagata (Stamford) had eight points and six rebounds in a starting role but two other starters managed only four total points in 47 minutes against the taller hosts.

The two-time defending Little East Conference champion, Eastern opens conference play Saturday at the University of Southern Maine at 1 p.m.