What do you do when your opponent hits five of seven three pointers in the first half? This was the question that Regis College posed to the women's basketball team last night in Cousens gym. It took a lifeline or two, but the Jumbos finally prevailed over the feisty Beacons, 67-59, pulling away in the final three minutes of the contest.
The Beacons shot only 35.9 percent overall, but hit at a 44.1 clip from behind the three-point line, including an impressive 71.4 percent effort from beyond the arc in the first half.
"They just shot the ball well," coach Janice Savitz said. "We went to the 3-2, thinking that we'd be closer to the three point line, but they still kept shooting well. Kudos to them."
On paper, though, the game appeared to be a mismatch. Tufts was fresh off an 81-53 thumping of the Lasell Lasers, a team that topped Regis 66-65 earlier in the season. The Jumbos were playing at home and, despite a rash of injuries, sported a 2-1 record.
"Coach said this was the hardest working team that we would face, so we expected a hard game," freshman Kate Gluckman said. "Not as hard as what happened. Unfortunately, I think that we went into this game a little bit cocky."
The Beacons appeared to have taken advantage of this cockiness, as they sported a three point lead with five minutes remaining. But then sophomore center Emily Goodman turned one of her six offensive rebounds into a bucket to cut the lead to one. Junior forward Mara Schanfield, who first entered the game with six minutes left, then drilled a three-pointer to complete the comeback.
"Mara hitting that three-pointer was huge with her coming in off the bench.," Savitz said.
Then, one minute later, Goodman, who chipped in a team-high 29 points as well, gave Tufts the lead for good off of a nice feed from sophomore point guard Hillary Dunn. Long before Regis had completed its first-half barrage of three pointers, however, it was evident that this game would not be a cakewalk for the Jumbos. While Tufts floundered at the offensive end, missing nine straight shots during one particularly bad stretch, the Beacons jumped out to an 18-8 lead on a jumper from junior Kathy Barberi with nine minutes left in the half. Barberi led Regis with 21 points on 7-17 shooting, including nine points on six shots from behind the three-point arc.
The Jumbos would tie the score at 21 five minutes later after a flurry of scoring that included a three pointer by Dunn and four points each from Goodman and Gluckman. A buzzer beating shot at the end of the half by junior Jamie Busnengo gave Tufts a 31-28 halftime lead.
The tide turned at the beginning of the second half, though, and it looked like the Jumbos were about to put the game away. Freshman Maritsa Christoudias hit a long jumper for two of her 11 points, and Goodman rebounded her own miss and put it back to give Tufts a seven point lead at 35-28 one minute into the second half. Tufts maintained that lead for the next five minutes, increasing it to nine on a Dunn three pointer with 13:46 remaining.
But the Beacons stormed back, outscoring the Jumbos 15-5 over the next 8:06. A Jumbo mistake led to Beacon junior Helen Dinan's steal and layup, cutting the Tufts lead to one at 50-49. Barberi and Dinan each hit one more jumper to give the Beacons their 53-50 advantage with 4:50 to play, setting the stage for the Jumbos to showcase their version of the five-minute drill.
"We showed patience and poise down the stretch," Savitz said of the team.
Goodman agreed. "We played poised and didn't panic," she said. "It's good to do that early on because it will become important later in the season."
Perhaps nowhere was this poise more evident than in the turnover category. The Jumbos were averaging 25 turnovers a game entering last night, but turned the ball over only 14 times last night. Primarily responsible for this drop was point guard Dunn who led the team with six assists including several key feeds in the second half.
"She totally controls the offense," Goodman said. "I feel comfortable with her on the court. Each game we've been playing better together."
Dunn also contributed eight points, an offensive contribution that Savitz has been looking for. "Hilary looked for her shot," Savitz said. "I know she can hit it. It was good to see her to do that. She played very well, a solid game."
Gluckman has also been a steady contributor on the injury-plagued Jumbos, tallying ten points and seven boards in last night's game. She is averaging seven rebounds, to go along with her 6.8 points per game.
"Kate did a nice job," Savitz said. "She does the little things. She is an intense player. She gets it, she understands."
Savitz hopes that her squad will be able to breathe a little easier their next time out when they travel to Norton, Mass. on Saturday for a 2 p.m. date with Wheaton. Last year, Tufts outscored the hosts 37-17 in the second half, en route to a 70-45 embarrassment of the Lyons.
"Last year was last year, we can't rely on the fact that we beat them by that much last year," Dunn said. "They're a different team, and we're a different team. But we're determined to go into the break at 4-1."
