The Tufts women's basketball team played two good halves of basketball this weekend. Unfortunately, the halves were spread over two games. Still, the Jumbos managed a split on the road against two NESCAC opponents, edging defending ECAC champion Trinity 53-50 on Friday night before being subdued by Amherst 61-51 on Saturday afternoon.
In both games, Tufts held halftime leads (29-20 and 27-26 respectively) but in each instance, their opponents outplayed them in the second half, as the Jumbos record moved to 10-5 overall (1-2 in the NESCAC).
"We didn't play as well in the second half of either game," freshman Kate Gluckman said. "It's sort of a bad habit we've been getting into."
The Amherst Lord Jeffs feature the NESCAC leaders in assists (sophomore Sarah Bozorg), rebounds (Sarah Walker), blocked shots (Walker), and three-point field goal percentage (freshman Shannon Russell), and as of Sunday have the third best record in the NESCAC at 3-1 (15-3 overall) behind Colby and Bowdoin, who are both 4-0 in NESCAC play.
Against Amherst, the Jumbos had things going their way early on, holding a 12-5 lead 6:38 into the first half. Tufts got four points from sophomore Emily Goodman to open the game, and threes from sophomore Hillary Dunn and freshman Maritsa Christoudias gave the Jumbos a seven-point lead.
Amherst tied the game up almost four minutes later on a lay-up by Lord Jeff sophomore Sarah Walker, and even held the lead until the 6:33 mark. But Tufts reclaimed the lead and managed to stay slightly ahead of Amherst until halftime, by getting four points from junior forward Jayme Busnengo and three from sophomore Erin Harrington to take the one point halftime lead into the locker room.
In the second half, Amherst came out firing. Two three pointers, one from sophomore Sara Bozorg, and one from senior co-captain Charlotte Taylor gave the home team a lead at the 17:35 mark, that it would not relinquish. Walker hit a jumper with 13:49 remaining and after that shot, Tufts would never get closer than five points.
Amherst's leading scorer was freshman Shannon Russell with fifteen points. The Jeffs also got 18 rebounds and five blocks from Walker.
Jumbo turnovers played a major role in Amherst's second half run. The Lord Jeffs scored eleven of their 35 second-half points off of turnovers while stopping the Jumbos from converting any of the five Amherst turnovers into scores.
In the first half, the Jumbos out-rebounded the Jeffs 25-19 and converted five of their 11 offensive rebounds into points. In the second half, those numbers were almost exactly reversed, with Amherst holding a 25-16 rebounding edge and getting 13 second chance points.
"I don't think it was anything that Amherst did," senior captain Shira Fishman said. "We kind of beat ourselves. They were getting a lot of second-chance points. We didn't go aggressively after the ball, and they did."
The night before, Tufts was in Hartford taking on the Trinity Bantams. Again, the Jumbos played an impressive first half, shooting 46.2% from the field and taking a nine-point lead at the half. "We played pretty well in the first half, and played good defense in both games," Gluckman said. "We played as a team."
During the second half, Trinity came back to make the game close. The Bantams shot 40% from the field, a big increase over a horrid 26% first half, while the Jumbos went in the opposite direction, hitting only eight of 26 shots (30.8%) in the second half.
Tufts held on to the lead, but not without a bit of luck. With roughly 40 seconds to play and Tufts up by four, the Bantams hit a jumper to cut the lead in half. A Jumbo turnover then gave Trinity the ball back, but the Bantams blew a wide open lay-up. Busnengo snared the rebound and made one of two free throws to put the game out of reach.
The loss dropped Trinity to 5-10 overall and 0-4 in NESCAC play. The Bantams, last season's ECAC champions, lost three starters to graduation and have struggled so far this season. Sophomore forward Kate McCloskey is the second leading scorer (behind Goodman) and rebounded in the NESCAC, and in Friday's game she led Trinity in both categories.
"They were good," Fishman said of Trinity. "Every NESCAC game will be a good game. Still, we knew we should win. We got a little complacent in the second half. It would have been a huge disappointment if we'd lost."
The Jumbos continue their NESCAC schedule next weekend with a trip to Maine where they will battle Colby and Bowdoin, the top two teams in the NESCAC. Both schools beat Tufts at Cousens Gym, last season, and the Jumbos will look to avenge those losses. In the meantime, Tufts hits the road for a non-conference tilt with the Fighting Scots of Gordon College on Tuesday night.
