While a loss is always difficult to swallow, it becomes even more bothersome when the opposition forces a change in game plan. Such was the case on Tuesday night when the women's basketball team had to alter its defense to combat the Babson Beavers' offense in Tufts' 85-71 loss.
"You can always think what if," coach Janice Savitz said. "We wanted to establish a man-to-man defense and be aggressive. We wanted to dictate the tempo."
Unfortunately for the Jumbos, the initial man-to-man setup was unsuccessful, as the Beavers burst out to a 19-10 lead to begin the game. "They shot the ball unbelievably," Savitz said. "Every shot they took, they made."
With the Jumbos down by nine, Savitz called a timeout. When the team returned to the court, Tufts had switched to a matchup zone defense. The defense was fairly successful, as Tufts was able to force numerous turnovers in this set.
The Jumbos utilized the zone and were able to go into the lockerroom at halftime down by seven. Though the change in point differential was only two following the timeout, the new defense successfully slowed down the Babson attack.
Savitz said the matchup zone was successful because "our slides are a little different then in the conventional zone. Different people rotating took them out of their set."
The zone helped slow down the tempo of the game, which played to Tufts' advantage. As a halfcourt team, the Jumbos are more successful when they are able to run a set offense and keep the opposition from running on offense.
Eventually, Babson began to hit some outside shots instead of just driving to the basket, and this reduced the effectiveness of the zone as, did a lack of rebounding. "There were a couple times when we gave up too many second shots," Savitz said.
Overall, however, the Jumbos were fairly proficient in utilizing the match up zone defense, especially considering it's not something that they frequently practice. "Our defensive set is contingent on who we play," Savitz said. "Their primary offense was to get it inside. They didn't take too many threes. That match up zone we only practiced for 20 minutes."
Junior co-captain Hillary Dunn echoed her coach's sentiments. "I think we did really well with the zone defense even though we only started practicing it a few days ago," she said.
In addition to being forced to alter their set defensive style, the Jumbos had problems with transition defense. Although Tufts was able to slow down the pace somewhat after switching into the zone defense, transition defense was a problem that plagued the team throughout the contest. Babson was a much quicker team than the Jumbos and featured an assortment of guards who looked to run the ball at every opportunity. On the other hand, Tufts has only a few players with outstanding foot speed.
To deal with the disadvantage in speed, Savitz encouraged her guards to hustle back following each Babson rebound. "We just tried to rotate our guards back," she said. "They did a good job of getting the ball out quickly."
Despite the loss and the defensive problems, Savitz was pleased with her team's effort and believes that as the Jumbos play a few more games, they will improve. "The effort was there," Savitz said. "It was their game four and our game two. We have to be a lot more physical and aggressive."
