And then there were seven - spots in the NESCAC women's basketball tournament, that is.
After wins over the Wesleyan Cardinals and the Connecticut College Camels this weekend, one of those spots - the final one - goes to the Jumbos, who take on the Colby White Mules in tonight's first-round contest in Maine. "We're really excited. It was do-or-die and we won both of them," sophomore point guard Hillary Dunn said. "To pull it off like this is a nice end to the regular season."
The Jumbos' fate was actually decided on Friday night, with a 65-61 win over Wesleyan (2-7), making Saturday's 91-61 blowout of Conn. College (0-9) simply icing on the cake. The win over Wesleyan - combined with Trinity's loss to Colby (7-2) - automatically qualified Tufts for the tournament, and a match against the second seed White Mules. But it wasn't such an easy task.
The Jumbos played lackadaisically in the first half Friday, managing just 24 points on a total of 20 shot attempts, and didn't help matters by continuing to struggle early in the second frame. The team looked to sophomore center Emily Goodman on most possessions, and while Goodman kept the Jumbos from falling too far behind, Wesleyan had still managed to mount a 46-33 lead with just over ten minutes to play.
But Tufts then pulled out a rarely used weapon - the second-half run. The Jumbos, who have failed to produce down the stretch on several occasions this season, turned out 21 of the next 31 points to move within two points of the Cardinals.
"At halftime, it was up in the air," Goodman said. "We've struggled closing out games all year. I knew we had to do it sometime, I'm just glad we learned how against Wesleyan."
With just under four minutes to play, an Emily Goodman basket tied the game at 56. After a free throw by Wesleyan's Ashley Elia, junior Katie Kehrberger's jumper put the Jumbos up 58-57 at the 1:46 mark. Goodman and sophomore guard Hillary Dunn hit clutch free throws in the closing minutes and the Jumbos never relinquished the slight lead, qualifying for the NESCACs with the 65-61 win.
"Once we settled down and ran through our offenses, we picked up confidence," Dunn said. "When we got the lead, we knew could hold them off."
Goodman led all scorers with 35 points - more than all other Jumbos combined - connecting on 11 of her 18 shots from the floor and 13 of 14 free throws. Her 19.0 points per game lead the NESCAC and are nearly two full points above the nearest competition.
Defensively, the Jumbos limited the Cardinals to 35.7 percent shooting (20-56), and held their leading scorer, sophomore Shaleen Bowman, to 6-20 from the field. Tufts outrebounded the Cardinals, 36-33,with six boards apiece from Goodman, point guard Shira Fishman, and forward Jayme Busnengo.
With a tournament spot under their belt, the Jumbos got a breather on Saturday in the form of a date with the 0-8 Conn. College Camels. Though Tufts got out to a slow start and actually trailed 7-1 in the opening minutes, the team soon found its groove and was able to close out senior Fishman's regular season career at Cousens with a convincing win.
"We're going to miss them a lot and it was definitely on our minds," Goodman said of the team's two seniors, Fishman and guard Meghann Gill (out this season with an injury). "But it was more against Wesleyan that we wanted to win for them. That was the one."
Tufts led 47-31 after the first half Saturday, and upped the lead to 55-35 minutes into the latter frame. But the Camels did mount a comeback, led by senior Sarah Ellison, and senior Jessica Nowlin's jumper at the 12-minute mark actually brought Conn. College to within 11 points.
That was as far as Conn. College would get, however, as the Jumbos again put together a second-half run - this time to the tune of 11-2 - and soon brought the lead back to 20. Tufts shot 50.6 percent from the field and finished with its highest point total of the season, as well as one of its most even point distributions. Goodman led the team with 20, Busnengo had 13, freshman Erin Buckley 11, and Kehrberger ten. Three other Jumbos scored eight points. Tufts also outrebounded Conn. College, 49-34, marking the third time in the last four games it has performed better on the boards than its opponents.
The focus now turns to tonight, and a date with the second-seeded White Mules. Tufts lost by 11 to Colby just two weekends ago, at which point a tournament qualification seemed a distant prospect.
"The pressure is on them, but I think we have a good shot at beating them," Goodman said.
If the teams last couple of games have fallen under the "do or die" category, the next couple come under "nothing to lose." Having both won and lost several games as a result of late runs this season, the Jumbos also know that tonight's clash with Colby comes under the "anything can happen" category. And that's just the way they want it.
"We're on a roll now," Goodman said. "We want to keep playing for as long as possible."
