Strong offense backed by solid defense in impressive win over MIT

Last Saturday at Cousins Gym the women's basketball team went score for score with the pesky MIT Engineers, needing an extra frame to secure a 61-56 victory. After watching victory postponed on several occasions in the second half, junior guard Maritsa Christoudias made a key hustle play in overtime to secure a Jumbo victory and 4-1 record heading into break.

With a minute left in regulation, the Jumbos found themselves up two points but needing a defensive stop to win. After a block by junior center Erin Buckley, MIT junior guard Maria Hidalgo hit a jump shot with 51 seconds left, tying the game at 52. Tufts had one last shot to win the game in regulation, but senior captain Hillary Dunn missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 36 seconds left.

Just 16 seconds into overtime, MIT forward Rayna Zacks fouled out of the contest, taking her game-high 11 rebounds to the bench. This proved key as freshman guard Jessica Powers used Zacks' vacancy to drive down the left baseline and lay the ball in for a 54-52 Tufts lead. A free throw by MIT's leading scorer, senior co-captain center Crystal Russell cut the lead to 54-53 Tufts, but that is as close as the game got. Powers fed sophomore center Allison Love on an out of bounds play with 1:56 left putting the Jumbos up 56-53.

Just 24 seconds later, Powers faced a situation similar to two that had turned sour on her earlier in the game _ breakaway lay-ups. "When you have a break away lay-up, you have crazy adrenaline," coach Carla Berube said in Powers' defense. "Sometimes the ball flies off your hands, we need somebody following that, which I don't think we did a couple of times."

After a rebound, Buckley tossed the ball up-court to a wide-open Powers, and after having missed two earlier breakaway attempts, Powers converted, lifting Tufts to a five point lead with 1:32 left on the clock, but victory was not yet sealed.

"You can never think it's over," Powers said. "They came back from 15 in another game. You can never relax. I knew they were going to keep fighting us and they did."

At the 1:20 mark in the game, Hidalgo converted a three-point play, cutting Tufts lead to 58-56. With a little more than a minute left to play, Christoudias stepped in. With the ball drifting out of bounds off Tufts, Christoudias maneuvered around a MIT player and hit the ball, deflecting it off of her, as Christoudias fell out of bounds, maintaining possession for Tufts.

"We are winning this game," Christoudias said was the statement that was going through her mind as she made the play. "We weren't going to lose on an out-of-bounds ball."

The referee signaled Tufts ball and with 30 seconds left, the Jumbos owned the lead and the ball. Two free throws from Dunn sealed the victory.

Although the team scored enough points to win, Berube felt it was that defense propelled them to victory. Leading the charge was Powers, who totaled seven steals.

"Defense is my favorite part of the game because it sparks my offense," Powers said. "I look to pick it up on defense. It gets the while team going if you are really aggressive."

Powers was only 4-23 from the field with eight points, but was not discouraged by the performance.

"I wasn't tired," Powers said. "It just was an off shooting night, it happens. It will fall next game."

Leading the team in scoring was freshman Julia Verplank, who scored eight of her team high 12 points in the first half. Verplank found herself in the right place for offensive rebounds and put backs, but also had some open looks from the field due to team chemistry and offensive cohesion.

"Every single player on this team is on the same page," Christoudias said. "Knowing where your teammates are is what makes good court vision."

This was the team's last game until Jan. 9 when they travel to Wellesley.

"We really just wanted to be 4-1 going into the break," Powers said.

The Jumbos have almost a month to savor this victory and rest over winter break.

"I'm very proud of the team for preserving and coming up with a W," Berube said. "It's a great way to finish off the first semester."