It took some of their best basketball of the season and some clutch free-throw shooting by sophomore Hillary Dunn, but the Tufts women's basketball team was able to stave off an aggressive Clark University Cougar squad in the 79-73 victory at home on Tuesday night.
With the score tied at 73 and :20 remaining in the game, Dunn was sent to the line for two free throws, which she hit to give Tufts the lead. Following a failed three-point attempt by the Cougars, Dunn was fouled again. The sophomore guard calmly sank both to put the game out of reach, and cap off an impressive effort by the Jumbos.
"It was a good win," sophomore Emily Goodman said. "Hillary came through in the end, but it shouldn't have been that close."
The Cougars were competitive for most of the first half, though Clark held the lead only once, 4-2. Sophomore Erin Harrington hit two three pointers early in the quarter, and a long jumper by senior captain Shira Fishman gave the Jumbos an early 12-6 lead. When Harrington converted a left-handed scoop shot from the baseline, the home team's lead stood at nine with just over ten and a half minutes left in the half.
But the Cougars answered with a 7-0 run, and kept the game close until the 5:10 mark when a pretty wrap-around pass from Dunn led to another long Fishman jumper. The basket ignited an 8-0 Tufts run that would carry the Jumbos to a 40-29 halftime lead.
The Jumbos were hitting on all cylinders in the first half, shooting a red-hot 56.3 percent from the floor, and sharing scoring opportunities.
"I thought we got good play from everybody who went into the game," coach Janice Savitz said. "We executed well offensively and spread the floor well."
Indeed, Tufts was unfazed by Clark's aggressive defense. Faced with a full-court pressure and double-teaming, Jumbo ball carriers committed only six turnovers in the first half while racking up fifteen assists.
Tufts' scoring distribution was another testament to the team's expert passing on this night. Freshman Kate Gluckman led the way with 10 points before the break, followed by sophomore Erin Harrington with eight, and Fishman and freshman Erin Buckley with six apiece. For a team that has sometimes relied on two players (Harrington and Goodman) for nearly fifty percent (48.7) of its 62.1 points per game on the season, Tuesday's scoring distribution was a good sign.
In the defensive realm, Tufts was also stellar in the first half, forcing three shot clock violations, blocking five shots, and registering three steals. The visitors kept the game close thanks to a halftime rebounding edge of 22-16 and 4-6 three-point shooting.
But in the second half, the Cougar scoring troubles evaporated. Led by sophomore Rachel Turkington's twelve second-half points, Clark chipped away at the Tufts lead. Turkington's baseline three-pointer with nine minutes to play cut the difference to four at 58-54.
In Tufts' answer to the run, Goodman exploded for the Jumbos, scoring 18 points after a scoreless first half, and hauling in five second half rebounds. On one 1:30 stretch, Goodman went six for six from the free throw line.
Free-throw shooting became an important theme on Tuesday night, when after the Turkington three-pointer, the Jumbos went stone cold from the charity stripe. Over the next 5:15, Tufts' free-throw shooters made only three of 12, and despite jumpers from junior Katie Kehrberger and Gluckman, Tufts allowed Clark to tie the score at 63 with 5:54 remaining.
For the final five minutes, Tufts tried to pull away, but the Cougars climbed right back. An 8-4 Clark run, aided by two Jumbo turnovers, helped the Cougars to trim a 69-63 Jumbo lead down to two.
With just over 20 seconds left, Clark senior captain Emily Morgan was fouled, and sent to the line for two shots. The 6-1 forward swished both to tie the game and set up Dunn's heroics.
"They were a very aggressive team and they came at us in the second half, but we picked up the defense," Harrington said after the game. "And Hillary made those two clutch free throws. She is the hero for the game."
The victory brought an end to a 3-2 Tufts home-stand, and stopped a two-game losing streak. The Jumbos set out on a five-game road trip that beings this Friday at Trinity. The stretch will go a long way toward deciding where in the NESCAC the Jumbos end up.
Conference rivals Trinity, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Colby are on the schedule for the next two weeks with a non-conference game against the Gordon Fighting Scots thrown in the middle.
"We missed a ton of free throws, but it was a good win," Savitz said. "It gave us a whole lot of confidence going into this weekend. Hopefully we can keep the feeling alive."
