The men's basketball team came within a shot of pulling off the biggest upset of its season, but the visiting Keene State Owls forced two turnovers in the final five seconds to hold on for an 88-85 victory last night at Cousens Gym. Keene State, the number-one ranked team in New England, improved to 17-1 with the win, while the Jumbos fell to 10-8 heading into the final three weeks of the regular season.
After battling back from a four-point deficit, the Jumbos took an 82-81 lead on a free throw by junior guard Jim Wilson with 2:34 remaining. But Keene State retook the lead on a three-pointer from senior David Strantial, who had a game-high 28 points including seven threes. On its next possession, Tufts had trouble moving the ball, and could not find an open shot. Keene came away with a steal, and sophomore Chris Timson banked in a shot to push the lead to four.
Junior guard Mike McGlynn responded with a his fifth three of the game with 15.4 seconds remaining to get the Jumbos back within a point. Tufts fouled immediately, sending Timson to the line for two shots. He missed both, leaving the door open, but Tufts could not capitalize, and turned the ball over with 2.7 seconds left.
The Jumbos fouled again, and this time sophomore guard Bennett Pawlusiak hit both free throws to give Keene a three-point lead with 1.9 seconds on the clock. Tufts had one final opportunity to tie, but never even got the ball inbounds, throwing the ball away again to give Keene the 88-85 win.
The defeat was the second heartbreaker in less than a week for the Jumbos, who lost 88-87 to Trinity Friday on a last second put-back by the Bantams. The Jumbos played their second consecutive game without junior guard Brian Shapiro, who is expected to return for this weekend's contests. Junior Lee Neugebauer missed the game due to an illness, and is also expected back.
"We played hard - we battled. They're the number-one team in New England, and we took them all the way down," coach Bob Sheldon said. "We're in our gym, and we weren't going to lay down for anybody. But I wouldn't call it a moral victory. It would be if we were winning and had some things going for us, but we just lost like that to Trinity, and now we did it again here. We need to get those."
Keene started the game on fire, hitting five three pointers - three of them from Stantial - in the first 3:31 to jump out to an early 17-9 advantage. But the Jumbos responded with a run of their own, rattling off ten straight points to go up 19-17.
"We settled down, started making some good passes, and started breaking their press," Sheldon said of his team's sudden turnaround.
But that press plagued Tufts all night, as Keene forced 18 turnovers, 15 of them coming off steals. Especially without guards Brian Shapiro and Phil Barlow, the Jumbos had difficulty moving the ball down the floor, and at many points were unable to find open shots.
"The press was a little bit of a problem," Sheldon said. "Phil and Brian are a big part of us breaking a press, because they're so athletic. Phil goes right through that thing. If we have Phil they don't press half the time they did. And Brian's so athletic that he gets through and instead of just getting it over, he'll attack and score. Losing Brian was a big difference today."
Despite Tufts' problems with the press, the two teams remained neck-and-neck through the rest of the period, with neither leading by more than three at any point. Keene's offense sputtered down the stretch, and the Owls managed just 36.1 percent shooting in the first half.
But Timson, who finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, hit two free throws to give Keene a 39-38 edge with 33.5 seconds before the break. Tufts held for the last shot, and freshman Craig Coupe followed through with an inside lay-in as time expired to take a 40-39 lead into the locker room.
Tufts stepped up the intensity even more coming out of the break, out-scoring the Owls 18-7 to stretch the lead as high as 12. But the Jumbos were unable to finish off their opponents, allowing them to get back into the game by scoring the next 13 points to take a 59-58 lead.
A free throw from Wilson evened the score at 59 with 9:59 left, and Tufts put together a 10-3 run to get back to a six-point lead. The junior finished the night with a team-high 21 points, his fifth consecutive game in double-digits. He also led in rebounds and assists, with 11 and five, respectively.
But Keene battled back once again, led by Stantial, who had 17 of his team's 22 points in the final 7:14. His NBA-distance three-pointer with 6:11 on the clock gave Keene State a one-point lead, at 73-72, which he would extend to four, at 80-76, two minutes later. Tufts scored the next five, and Pawluski hit a free throw to bring the game to an 81-81 tie with 2:26 to play.
Tufts had four players in double-digits, including Wilson. McGlynn finished with 19 points, while freshman Reggie Stovell had 12 and junior Kyle Van Natta had 11. Coupe had nine points, ten rebounds, and three blocks on the night.
The Jumbos will return to conference play this weekend, as they travel to Maine to face Colby and Bowdoin.
