Jumbos split weekend games

Sometimes, it's the little things in life that matter the most. But for the men's basketball team this weekend, it was the big ones.

In two games on Friday and Saturday, sophomore big men Craig Coupe and Reggie Stovell combined for 39 points and 49 rebounds, as the Jumbos defeated MIT 70-67, and fell to Clark 89-77.

"We've started looking to them as plan A instead of shooting the three or the outside shot," senior co-captain Brian Shapiro said. "Lately that's been our focus, and (Saturday) we made a really big effort to get it in to them and take advantage of (Clark's) lack of height."

The Jumbos' plan nearly worked as Coupe, a 6'7" 230 pound center, dominated the boards on Saturday at Clark when he poured in 17 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in a losing effort against a strong Cougar team. Clark has advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight for the last two years, and entered this season ranked 19th in the county.

The Jumbos hung with the Cougars for most of the game and trailed by just two points at the break, 42-40. Took a late lead in the game, but Clark was too good from the three-point line (50 percent in the second half) and the Cougars pulled away for the win. Tufts also shot just 2-9 from the free throw line in the second half, and 7-17 overall, just 41.2 percent.

"We played well for 35 minutes, but there were just those five minutes where we didn't play well and lost it all, like we've done all season," Shapiro said. "Free throw shooting has been a problem every game, and have to find some way to improve that. It's really killed us."

Junior guard Mike McGlynn joined Coupe as the game's high scorer with 17 points of his own, including three three-pointers. Three other Jumbos finished in double digits, including senior co-captains Jim Wilson and Shapiro, who finished with 15 and ten points respectively, and junior Deyvehn East, who had ten points of his own.

Also in action on Saturday was junior point guard Eric Mack, who played in his first game of the year. Mack was originally slated to start for the Jumbos at point guard but was injured before the season started and was expected to be out until January. Mack played 17 minutes and had five assists and one steal.

Coupe's performance came on the heels of Stovell's big day, when he scored 16 points and pulled down 20 boards to lead the Jumbos to victory over MIT, the team's second win of the season. In that game Tufts lead by as many as 11 points in the first half, but saw its lead disappear in the opening minutes of the first half.

The Engineers took the lead with ten minutes left to play, but the Jumbos reclaimed the lead for good on a layup by McGlynn with 5:14 left to play. McGlynn was second on the team in scoring with 15 and was followed closely by Wilson with 12 and Shapiro with ten. But the day belonged to Stovell, who amassed career highs in points and rebounds, all in just 24 minutes on the floor.

Mack's return to the lineup on Saturday may present the team with somewhat of a controversy at the point guard position. At the beginning of the season, coach Bob Sheldon planned to start Wilson at the point until Mack was ready to go, at which point he would take over the starting role. It seems that Wilson has not made the decision so easy, however, as the co-captain has been a steady contributor as a starter. In the last three games Wilson has scored 20, 12, and 15 points. And despite its losing record so far, the team has played well, hanging with Wabash and Clark, both ranked nationally at one point this season.

"It's nice to have Eric back because he's strong on defense and a good offensive player," Shapiro said. "But Jim's been doing a great job, and it's gonna be tough to get him out of the starting lineup."

The weekend split left the Jumbos at 2-4 on the season with one game left before winter break. Tufts will face Plymouth State on Monday, the team's last final game until Jan. 7 when it plays at Curry.