The men's basketball team continued its winning ways Saturday, taking down Wheaton College in a 68-60 victory. Despite posting their worst field goal percentage of the season, the Jumbos were able to hold off the visiting Lyons, and improved their record to 5-3 on the season. With the loss, Wheaton fell to 5-4.
Tufts shot just 29 percent from the filed in the first half and finished the game shooting 34.5 percent, by far the team's worst performance of the season. Despite such lackluster shooting in the opening frame, Tufts was able to keep pace with the Lyons, thanks to 50 percent shooting from three-point land and 12-18 shooting from the free throw line.
Wheaton junior Luke Gordon paced the Lyons in the first half, scoring 12 of his game-high 18 points in just nine minutes on the floor. The Jumbos, meanwhile, were led by junior forward Kyle Van Natta, who chipped in nine of his team-high 16 points in the first half.
Van Natta shot 50 percent from the field and sunk two three-point attempts to keep the Jumbos close. Yet despite his strong play, the shooting woes of the Jumbos allowed Wheaton to enter the break with a 37-35 advantage. "We moved Kyle from the three to the four from last year," coach Bob Sheldon said. "I think it's taken him some time to get comfortable, but he's starting to produce."
Wheaton did not skip a beat coming back into the second half, as the Lyons rolled off four unanswered points to start the period. But junior Brian Shapiro kept the lead from growing, sprinting the length of the court to swat away a Wheaton fast break layup. A subsequent foul shot and Wheaton lay-in left the score at 42-35 with 17:49 remaining.
Responding to the Lyons early run, sophomore Phil Barlow shot two free throws and a Van Natta hit another three to slice the deficit to 42-40. Tufts kept the score close and a tip in by freshman Craig Coupe off of a Van Natta miss cut the Wheaton lead to 53-51. Shapiro, who finished with 14 points, gave the Jumbos their first lead of the half with an NBA range three with 9:10 to play that made the score 54-53.
Wheaton did not regain the lead from this point on, as the Jumbos played hard and were tough on the boards. Coupe was tenacious under the basket, collecting 12 rebounds to go along with his 11 points.
A Shapiro three with 4:55 remaining effectively put the nail in the coffin for the Lyons, putting Tufts up 65-57. The Jumbos would add three more points on free throws, and walked away with the 68-60 win. "At the half I just told the guys, we've got 20 more minutes, let's go as hard as we can and get a win, and lets go to vacation," Sheldon said.
In what has been a continuing trend during the last four games, Tufts attempted fewer than 20 three-point attempts. An offense that had planned to rely heavily on the perimeter game seems to be finding a more balanced attack as of late.
"Part of it is we're going inside a little bit more," Sheldon said. "People are starting to take away our outside shot, so we're going to go in, and I think it will eventually balance out."
A slight area of concern for Sheldon and the Jumbos is the consistency of the lineup. Saturday's game featured eight different players who played ten minutes or more, and two starters who played only eleven minutes of the first half.
"We're playing a lot of guys, so we have to cut that down a little bit," Sheldon said. "We want to get a solid rotation going, and we want to play hard all the time. Playing so many guys, we kind of get out of sync."
Sheldon and his staff will look to find an answer to this issue, as the Jumbos head into a month-long hiatus. Tufts does not face another opponent until Jan. 4, when the Jumbos square off against Cazenovia in the Union invitational tournament in Schenectady, NY.
