The women's basketball team got a 21-point effort from sophomore center Emily Goodman and a late rain of three pointers on Saturday afternoon, but it was not enough to topple the Bates Bobcats in the Jumbos' NESCAC season opener.
The 64-56 loss was the second straight for the Jumbos, who dropped to 8-4 on the season. Bates, on the other hand, won its fifth straight and improved to 9-5. The Bobcats were led by freshman Laura Dubois with 18 points and senior captain Kate McLaughlin with 16.
Tufts caught a break early when McLaughlin, the NESCAC Player of the Week for Jan. 8-14, picked up her second foul just over a minute into the game. McLaughlin would remain on the bench for most of the first half, and the Jumbos took advantage. Good ball movement opened up Goodman down low and Tufts led 8-2 just over three minutes into the game.
"When Emily scores a couple of times, she definitely gets fired up," coach Janice Savitz said.
Bates battled back to take an 11-10 lead on a three-pointer by Dubois, but the Jumbos continued to control the game until the 7:20 mark.
Sophomore Hillary Dunn hit a three-pointer from the right side, freshman Maritsa Christoudias converted a touchdown pass from senior Shira Fishman, and Goodman tossed in another four points to give Tufts a 23-14 lead. Then, with McLaughlin back in the game, Bates went on a 15-2 run. Dubois, a bench player who was averaging only 4.4 points a game entering the contest, followed two short jumpers with a three-pointer and a wide open lay-up to tie up the game. By halftime McLaughlin had her first two points of the game, and the Bobcats had a 29-26 lead.
After the break, Bates sophomore Lisa Golobski hit a three-pointer from the right side and converted on two free throws, as the Bobcats slowly built up a ten-point lead over the first ten minutes of the second half.
Then, with just under nine minutes to go, Tufts' shooters began to connect from the outside. Dunn, sophomore Erin Harrington, and junior Katie Kehrberger each hit three-pointers and Harrington added a baseline jumper to bring the Jumbos within two with five and a half minutes to play.
But the momentum shifted once too many times for Tufts. McLaughlin hit a long two-pointer and then scored off of a rebound for two more. Senior forward Katy Dutille added four points of her own as Bates outscored the Jumbos 14-8 in the final five minutes. Harrington and junior Jayme Busnengo each added late three-pointers, but the Bobcats swished all four of their free throws in the last minute to hold on for their second NESCAC win of the season.
Bates was a tough opponent for the NESCAC opener. The Bobcats went 8-1in games against conference opponents last season, and made it to the NCAA tournament. This years' Bobcats, while perhaps not the force they were last season, already had one NESCAC win under their belt heading into Saturday's game.
"I am proud of the way we played," Savitz said. "We played hard. We showed we can play with anybody."
The Jumbos' field goal percentage was 39.8, a big turnaround from the 28.8 percent that the team shot in Thursday's loss to MIT, but still not enough to offset the Bobcat's 41.7 percent performance. Tufts shot better from outside the three-point arc than inside it for the fifth time this year and third game in a row. The team finishes up its five game homestand against Clark University Tuesday night at 7pm.
