The women's basketball team has been winning games in the second half all season. Last night at Cousens gym, however, it was the MIT Engineers who took over in the latter frame, outscoring the Jumbos 38-22 after the break and handing Tufts its first home loss of the season. The 68-48 defeat dropped the Jumbos to 8-3 heading into NESCAC play on Saturday.
MIT got 19 points from senior captain Christina Estrada, who also yanked down 16 rebounds, but it was the Jumbos' mistakes that gave the game away. Tufts shot 28.8 percent from the field and committed 21 turnovers. During the second half, the Jumbos dropped to 22 percent from the floor and turned the ball over ten times.
"We did not play well - physically, mentally," coach Janice Savitz said. "We got open looks that didn't drop. At times we beat ourselves. We just had mental breakdowns. A couple of times we lost easy passes, we were not moving to the ball. Taking care of the basketball is key. We got caught up in their frenetic pace."
MIT jumped out to an early lead, holding a 17-6 edge eight minutes into the first half. Estrada scored eight points during that span, not missing a shot until the 12:00 mark of the first half.
"She had 12 points at halftime, which is key for them," junior guard Erin Harrington said. "Then she was dominant again in the second half." MIT sophomore Crystal Russell chipped in five points during the opening run, including the three-point play that gave the Engineers that 11-point lead.
Tufts battled back with a 9-0 run over the next 3:07. The Jumbos' leading scorer, sophomore center Emily Goodman, scored five of those nine points, leading the Jumbos back into the game and forcing MIT to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Engineers boosted their lead to nine points, but freshmen Maritsa Christoudias and Kate Gluckman hit a three-pointer and a seven-foot jumper, respectively, to cut the lead to 30-26 going into halftime.
At the beginning of the second half, it looked as if the Jumbos would pull off a comeback similar to the one that sparked them to a 53-47 win on Tuesday night against Brandeis. In a frantic first minute, Gluckman scored the first four Tufts points, on her way to ten for the game. Harrington's three-pointer gave the Jumbos their first, and last, lead of the game at 33-32.
"They were physical and that may have got to our heads a little in the first half," Harrington said. "I think we adjusted when we made that run in the second half."
Overall, however, the Engineers showed more muscle, out-rebounding the Jumbos 56-34 and swatting five Jumbo shots.
With the score tied at 35, MIT pulled away again ripping off an 11-2 run capped by an Estrada putback with 11:32 to go. But once again, the Jumbos came back. Sophomore Hillary Dunn hit a three pointer from the right side to bring Tufts within six points, and Goodman cut the lead to three with a spin move that earned her a three point play and made the score 46-43.
It was then, with roughly ten minutes to go in the game, that MIT ran away from the Jumbos for good. Led by Maria Hidalgo, who dropped in eight points in the next four and a half minutes, the Engineers scored 22 the rest of the way while holding Tufts to just five, including a three-pointer from Dunn.
Tufts' poor shooting down the stretch was a key ingredient in the Engineers' closing run. "I'm curious as to what our shooting percentage was, because we did not shoot well at all," Dunn said. "We missed a lot of shots that we should have made. This whole game, like the first half against Brandeis, we were out of our rhythm."
Foul shots also played a key role in this game. Tufts hit four of the five free throws it was awarded, while MIT converted 14 of its 23.
MIT has now won six games in a row with road games against Mount Holyoke and nationally-ranked Wellesley, which defeated Tufts last week, on the horizon.
Next up for the Jumbos are the 8-4 Bates Bobcats, who come to Cousens Gym at 2 p.m. on Saturday to kick off the NESCAC season. Tufts closes out its five-game homestand against Clark on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
"MIT has a lot of quality wins," Savitz said. "They really played a lot harder than we did. They came out with a lot more intensity and emotion. We have to work on getting mentally ready to play."
