Jumbos oust 5th-ranked Lyons

The men's basketball team moved to above .500 for the first time since the beginning of the season with a convincing 95-82 victory this past Tuesday night at Wheaton College. The Jumbos have won five out of their last six contests, including three straight, and moving to 7-6 overall on the season (2-0, NESCAC) with the victory.

In the victory, senior co-captain Brian Shapiro notched the 1,000th point of his collegiate career, joining classmate Mike McGlynn as the only current Jumbos to achieve such a feat.

"Brian has had an amazing career," senior co-captain Jim Wilson said. "He's played great all four years here to achieve this. He's an extremely humble guy and a great team player, so he didn't make too big a deal out of it, but I feel really awesome for him more than anything that he was able to achieve this personal feat."

The Jumbos, riding their two-game winning streak, went into the game unintimidated by Wheaton's 12-2 record and its fifth-place ranking in New England.

"They were 12-2 coming in, but if you look at their schedule, you'll see that they didn't play the best quality teams," Wilson said. "We were not too intimidated to play them, because we know that if we play our game, we are hard to beat. This was definitely a good confidence builder."

With seven minutes to play in the first half, the Lyons pulled ahead 26-25, after both teams had gone on mini-runs for the first 13 minutes. But that was the last time the Lyons would hold the lead, as Tufts caught fire and went on a 22-4 run to close out the first.

"The key to that run was defense. Guys like Craig Coupe, Reggie (Stovell), and Blaine (Lay) and Dan (Martin), the freshmen all played great D during the run," Wilson said. "When we get stops, our shooters, like Mike McGlynn, get open looks and just two shots can lead to a 6-0 run."

Despite being down by 17 to start the second, Wheaton did not give up. The team began the half with seven unanswered points to cut Tufts' lead to 10, 47-37, with fifteen minutes to go in the game. But the Lyons would get no closer, as the Jumbos continued their hot shooting through the rest of the half, hitting 18 of 33 of their shots in the second period.

The Jumbos extended their lead to as much as 27 points midway through the second half, but again, the Lyons never gave up, outscoring Tufts 27-14 in the final ten minutes of the game.

Tufts benefited from solid performances by several different players. McGlynn led the team with 23 points and posted three rebounds and four assists. Wilson added 17 points and seven boards. Shapiro and sophomore Reggie Stovell netted 13 and 12 points respectively, while sophomore center Craig Coupe pulled down a game high eight rebounds.

While the Jumbos 7-6 record does not suggest a strong team, the win against Wheaton moved the team up to number four in the New England men's basketball power rankings. These rankings are not only a measure of a team's record, but also of the strength of its schedule and its margin of victory. The Jumbos have one of the toughest schedules in all of New England, and while the team's record isn't stellar, the strong competition has helped it prepare for NESCAC play.

"Everything before NESCAC play is to build up confidence and team unity," Wilson said. "Some choose to play easy teams and have 12-2 records going into conference play, but Coach Sheldon has done a great job to schedule tough games to prepare us for one of the toughest conferences in all of D3."

With ten games left this season, of which seven are against NESCAC opponents, making this final stretch extremely crucial for the Jumbos.

"We have a lot of confidence as a team," Wilson said. "We're playing together, and know that we can be very successful in the conference if we continue to play our game, just like we have been during this current streak."