The women's basketball team spent early January in the Bahamas, enjoying beaches, tanning weather, and casinos. It also won a couple of basketball games, capturing the Great Goombay Shootout in the Nassau region of the country.
The Jumbos (7-2), who traveled to Nassau on Jan. 2 for a five-day trip, topped both Washington College of Maryland and Marian University to win the Shootout. An easy win in the opener preceded a more strenuous effort in the victory over a quick Marion squad, after which the Jumbos were rewarded with a conch shell trophy.
The Bahamian National team was also slated to take on the Jumbos, but the game was cancelled due to complications dealing with games between professional and college teams. According to one Tufts player, the other two teams involved in the tournament refused to play the Bahamian team, turning the four-team tournament into a three-team tournament.
Against Washington College on Jan. 3, the women got off to a quick start and led comfortably throughout the contest. Sophomore center Emily Goodman led the team with 21 points on 8-16 shooting, despite playing a season-low 18 minutes.
"We started out strong and put them away early," Goodman said of the win.
Goodman wasn't the only team member to see her playing time decline, as coach Janice Savitz used the points cushion to distribute minutes more evenly - nine of the team's 11 players were in the game for 18 minutes or more.
The Jumbos also benefited from the return of two players - point guard Shira Fishman and shooting guard Erin Harrington. Fishman, a senior co-captain, had missed the beginning of the season after tearing her meniscus, while Harrington returned from an illness that caused her to miss the early games. "It was great to have them back," Goodman said. "We missed them a lot, on the court and off."
Fishman started in her debut and took just one shot, but contributed seven assists. Harrington chipped in 12 points on 5-10 shooting.
"They help us to be a more of a rounded team," sophomore point guard Hillary Dunn said "We welcomed back their experience and poise."
Dunn had started at point guard prior to Fishman's return, but did not get starts in either of the two Goombay Shootout contests. After having played nearly all 40 minutes in the season's early games, the sophomore was given just 17 minutes in the Jan. 6 win over Marian. Dunn said a slight injury held her off the court for part of the game.
In that contest, the Jumbos escaped with a 54-53 victory over a fast-paced Marian team. Although Tufts led 33-26 at the half, the game came down to the wire, with the Jumbos up 54-50 in the closing minute.
Marian drilled a three, tightening the gap to one, and Goodman then missed two consecutive one-and-one free throws. On the latter of Goodman's missed foul shots, Marian got the ball back with .7 seconds left on the clock, not enough time to get off a shot from the opposite end of the court.
Goodman did not start, but played 29 minutes and led the team with 14 points. Harrington was the only other Jumbo in double digits, shooting 5-11 for ten points.
"They were pretty quick, a guard-oriented team," Goodman said. "We had to step up our defense more than we had to against Washington."
The competition got even tougher upon the team's return to Massachusetts, in the form of a Jan. 11 date with nationally ranked Wellesley. Tufts stayed with Wellesley throughout the opening half and trailed just 35-30 at halftime, but Wellesley opened up a significant lead early in the second half and won, 68-53.
Wellesley out-rebounded Tufts 44-34, including 19 offensive boards. Center Kelly Grove was not expected to be a major factor, but surprised the Jumbos by scoring 23 points on 10-15 shooting and pulling down 14 rebounds.
"She killed us," Dunn said. "We did a decent job containing [leading scorer] Amy Barao, but we did not expect that from the center [Grover]."
Barao, one of just six players in Wellesley history to reach the 1,000 point mark for her career, scored just 12 points on 5-13 shooting.
Goodman responded to Glover's dominance with 23 points of her own, to go with nine boards, and Harrington was, once again, the only other Jumbo to score in double digits (13).
Goodman, Harrington, and freshman Maritsa Christoudias took 67 percent of the team's shots, and the Jumbos shot just 20-52 as a whole.
Savitz, who has been frequently mixing up the lineup, started both Fishman and Dunn in the loss to Wellesley. The two combined for just 2-4 shooting and two assists.
Dunn was the lone point guard in the starting lineup in Saturday's 70-38 defeat of Smith College, but split time with Fishman for most of the game, and the two combined for seven assists.
Their help was not needed on the scoreboard, as the trio of Goodman, Harrington, and Christoudias again took most of the shots. They were more successful this time around, however, combining for half of the team's points on 16-39 shooting. Harrington, now the team's second-leading scorer, with 13.3 points a game, led all scorers with 18 points.
The Jumbos held Smith to just nine points in the first half, jumping out to an early lead on three three-pointers from Harrington. The team eased up significantly in the second half, and only outscored Smith by two points, holding on for its most lopsided victory of the season.
Tufts hosts MIT tomorrow at 7 pm, and plays its first NESCAC game at home on Saturday, hosting the Bates Polar Bears at 2 p.m. That, according to Dunn, is when the real challenge begins.
"Every game matters then," Dunn said. "Especially with the [newly-created] NESCAC tournament. We have higher expectations of ourselves in conference play."
