The women's basketball game against the Gordon College Fighting Scots on Tuesday was eerily reminiscent of a scene from the movie Braveheart. No, not the scene where the Scots finally defeat the English, but rather the one where Williams Wallace's men turn the ball over 24 times and shoot a horrid 30.5 percent from the floor to lose the battle of Falkirk. Isn't that how it went?
Whatever the applicable movie comparison, the women's basketball team soundly defeated the Fighting Scots, building up an 18 point lead at halftime and cruising to the final score of 66-49. Sophomores Emily Goodman and Erin Harrington led the way with 20 points and 16 points respectively as Tufts improved to 11-5 overall.
The first half run was keyed by an impressive defensive effort. Tufts limited Gordon to only 14 first half points on 20 percent shooting. The Jumbos also forced 24 turnovers.
"I thought we played excellent defense in the first half. We put on a lot of defensive pressure.
They're one of the teams at the top of their conference, and we held them to 14 points in the first half," Savitz said.
Gordon hit four of ten second half three-point attempts in an effort to get back into the game, but the Tufts offense matched them almost point for point. The Scots also vastly improved their overall shooting, hitting at a 40 percent clip in the second half, but were only able to whittle the lead down one point to lose by 17.
"Basically, the first half set the tone," Harrington said. "We had a small letdown in the second half, but we kept up the game pace in the second half and it ended up being a pretty easy win."
The game was a wild one offensively, with both Tufts (24) and Gordon (23) committing a high number of turnovers.
With the loss, Gordon drops to 9-8 overall. The Fighting Scots play in the Commonwealth Coast Conference along with previous Tufts foe Regis College. The Fighting Scots are currently third in the CCC behind Colby-Sawyer College and the University of New England.
Gordon senior Lizz Curtis led her team with 13 points, and Lisa Memmen, ninth in the CCC in rebounds per game, led the team on the boards with nine.
Harrington had her second highest point total of the season and upped her points per game average to 10.1. Goodman, meanwhile, improved on her NESCAC leading 18.1 points per game and her NESCAC seventh best rebound average (8.1) with nine rebounds. While most of the scoring came from these two standouts (the Jumbos top two in points per game), everybody chipped in.
"We got good performances from a bunch of players," Savitz said. "Everybody contributed."
The game with Gordon was the final non-conference game of season for the Jumbos as their remaining six games all come against NESCAC rivals. First, the Jumbos will head up I-95 to Maine for conference games against Bowdoin and Colby before heading home to Cousens, where the gym will be a zoo full of Panthers, Cardinals, Camels, Elephants, and Purple Cows as the team battles for playoff position for the first ever NESCAC women's basketball tournament.
