BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—The sixth top-10 team that the Washington University women’s basketball team faced in the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship finally proved to be too much for the defending national champions.

The No. 12 Bears saw their bid to repeat fall short in the championship game, as they suffered a 64-55 loss to No. 2 Amherst College on Saturday.

The loss ended the team’s incredible run through the tournament, in which it defeated five straight top-10 teams, three different host schools, three teams that had beaten the Bears earlier in the year and two previously undefeated teams.

In winning the national championship, the Lord Jeff’s avenged losses to Wash. U. in the national semifinal of the 2009 and 2010 NCAA tournaments.

“Obviously we’re disappointed, but it was a great championship game, highly competitive, and I’m extremely proud of what this team has accomplished this year,” head coach Nancy Fahey said. “I told the kids nothing tonight was going to change how I felt about them.”

Strong defense and turnovers on offense from both sides led to the game beginning at a slower pace, as the Bears found themselves down 9-5 with 10:31 left in the first half. The team shot two of 12 to open the game and went nearly seven minutes in the middle of the half without scoring a point.

An inability to make free throws also hindered the Bears’ efforts on offense. The team was just 15 of 26 (57.7 percent) at the charity stripe for the game.

“I think part of their game plan, evidently, was to collapse on any post players once the ball went in the middle, and they did a good job on that,” senior Hannah Cusworth said. “Our plan was to adjust to that, but they played a strong defense in the post, and it was definitely physical. It was a fight for everyone down there.”

Wash. U. only reached the 10-point mark with 4:08 left in the first half on a pair of free throws from senior Kathryn Berger. These points then fueled a 6-0 run for the Bears that helped them whittle the Amherst lead down to 24-20 at halftime.

The Bears took their first lead of the game in the second half’s opening minutes, and the two teams continued to trade the lead throughout the early part of the half.

Amherst began to take control again, using two three-pointers to start an 8-1 run that forced Fahey—the Division III Coach of the Year—to call a time-out with her team down 35-29 with 11:16 remaining.

Out of the time-out, junior Brianne Monahan helped the Bears keep pace with the Lord Jeffs, as she scored four straight points, blocked an Amherst shot and then hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 39 with 7:59 remaining.

With the score tied, Amherst made the run that would prove to be decisive. Using more strong three-point shooting and benefitting from Wash. U.’s struggles from the foul line, Amherst went on an 18-5 run to drive the score to 57-44. After Berger’s three-pointer at the 5:03 mark, the Bears went scoreless again for more than three minutes.

“I felt like we kept trying to answer and they kept coming back with a three,” Fahey said. “They kind of hit some daggers with those, and I think that those were obviously tough to rebound from.”

Juniors Dani Hoover and Claire Schaeperkoetter kept the Bears in the game with timely three-pointers in the closing minutes, but Amherst sealed the win with strong free-throw shooting down the stretch.

Hoover led the Bears offensively, with 13 points, while Monahan chipped in 12 more. Berger had 11 points and led the team with 10 rebounds. As a team, the Bears were outrebounded 46-36, shot 36.2 percent (17 of 47) from the field, and hit only 57.7 percent of their shots (15 of 26) from the free-throw line.

“It was a lot more aggressive [than the team’s last two games against Amherst], and there was kind of a let-us-play mentality, so we had to adjust and were working with that,” Berger said. “Also, they were hitting some good outside shots, and you can’t take anything away from that.”

This marked the third-straight year that the Bears were in the national championship game. The team defeated Hope College 65-59 to win the fifth national title in program history but could not repeat. The Bears won four straight championships from 1998 to 2001.

Berger, named a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association First-Team All-American on Thursday, represented the team on the all-tournament team for her efforts in the game as well as in the team’s five earlier tournament victories over No. 10 Denison University, No. 4 Hope, No. 1 Thomas More College, University Athletic Association rival No. 6 University of Chicago and No. 7 Illinois Wesleyan University.

“We had a great season. We kind of surprised everyone, including ourselves,” senior Alex Hoover said. “At the beginning of the year, you always put on your goal sheet that you want to win a national championship, but sometimes you’re like, ‘Can we, really?’ So throughout this tournament, I think we’ve really gained confidence in ourselves, and it was a great run.”

Wash. U. ended its season at 25-6 and finished second or better in the nation for the third consecutive season.