At the end of January, the weather is typically frigid and snow is often on the ground. However, today it felt like a pleasant spring day with a high in the 60s. Perhaps following the lead of Mother Nature, the women's basketball team also heated up, as it had its best shooting day of the year, connecting on 51.7 percent of its shots and tying a season high in points scored with a 84-76 win over the Gordon Fighting Scots yesterday in Medford.
"I mean I noticed it first in warm-ups that we were all hot," senior co-captain Jayme Busnengo said. "Everyone was making their shots. We are on a little win streak."
"We've had trouble with our shooting in some of our more important games," junior Emily Goodman said. "We were bound to have a game where things go right. We needed a win."
Junior Erin Harrington led four Jumbo starters in double figures, scoring 22 points on 8-14 shooting but really stepped it up in the second half when she scored 14 points on 5-7 shooting. Senior Katie Kehrberger also had a huge night, netting 17 points on 8-10 shooting. While Harrington did most of her damage in the second half, Kehrberger was the dominate force in the first frame, connecting on seven of her eight shots for 15 points. In fact, Kehrberger was so hot that she broke her previous season high of 10, by halftime.
"She was unconscious," Goodman said about Kehrberger's performance. "She was great. She just stepped it up. They were packing it in tight [down-low] and they would really leave the outside open and she got good looks and converted. She made things happen."
Busnengo also had a scorching second half, shooting 4-5 for 12 points and went 6-10 for 16 points overall. Goodman was her usual solid self dropping 10 points and also grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.
"That is the kind of balance that was kind of a [plan] for this season," Goodman said. "More all around balance propelled us to win the game."
Although the starters made 27 of the team's 31 field goals and took 49 of the squad's 60 shots for a shooting percentage of better than 55 percent, the hot shooting was not limited to the starters. Sophomore Maritsa Christoudias provided a spark off the bench, chipping in with seven points on a perfect 3-3 from the field. Freshman Devin Rhoades also had four points in limited action.
"The thing with Maritsa is that she is one of our best defensive players," Goodman said. "Her specialty is defense and its really good when she is doing awesome on offense as well. She played with the confidence she needs to offensively."
After the first half, it was clear that the evening was going to be a high scoring affair as both teams shot were already shooting well. While Tufts managed to shoot at a 47.1 clip, the Fighting Scots were even more prolific, connecting on 66.7 percent of their shots. And with 37 points at halftime, Tufts was well on its way to cracking the 70 point barrier - something that it had done only once during the second semester, in Saturday's 71-62 win over Amherst. Overall, the team is 6-1 on the season when it scores more than 70 points in a contest. The lone setback came in the second game of the season, a 85-71 loss to Babson at home on Nov. 20.
During the second half, the Jumbos' shooting sizzled while Gordon's fizzled. Tufts' already solid first half shooting improved by more than ten percent in the second stanza, as the team shot 57.7 from the field. On the other hand, the Scots had trouble finding their touch in the second half, as their shooting percentage dropped by more than 30 percentage points to 36.4.
"Everybody was hitting their shots," junior co-captain Hillary Dunn said. "We did really well against their zone. We picked it apart with passing and everyone had open looks and we just hit them today."
Continuing this offensive productivity will be key this weekend as the Jumbos have the opportunity to move up in the NESCAC standings with games against Colby and Bowdoin on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively.
"I don't know if their was anything in particular that made [the offense outburst] happen," Goodman said. "But if we can feed off this for the rest of the season, we will be in good shape."
