Jumbos take first two NESCAC games on the road

Sometimes, a change can do you good.

Following a ten-point loss at Salem State, men's basketball coach Bob Sheldon felt that his team needed to change things up a bit. So he sent the team's senior captain and third leading scorer Brian Shapiro to the bench in the Jumbos' next two games against Connecticut College and Wesleyan last weekend.

The new look seemed to work out well for everyone, as the Jumbos' won their first two NESCAC games of the season, and Shapiro had his second best performance of the year with 25 points against Conn. College.

"It's something that I talked about with the coaches and we thought it would be the best way to help the team out," Shapiro said. "And we've gone 2-0 since, so I can't complain."

Against Wesleyan, however, Shapiro was not as fruitful, going 0-7 from the field for zero points, but it would not matter in the end as the Jumbos walked away with a 64-57 win. Senior guard Mike McGlynn led Tufts' attack against the Cardinals with 16 points, while sophomore big man Craig Coupe had 15 points and ten rebounds. Coupe is averaging a double-double for the season (14.2 points, 10.7 rebounds).

"Coupe's been huge for us all season," Shapiro said. "There aren't too many teams anymore with a legitimate big guy, and he's been making them pay for it."

The game was more of a blowout than the score suggests, as Tufts led by as many as 24 points with 14 minutes left to play. However, Wesleyan went on a 16-5 run over the final five minutes to narrow the lead to seven.

Sophomore Reggie Stovell had nine points and seven rebounds in the effort, while freshman Blaine Lay contributed eight points.

Against the Camels, Shapiro's offensive outburst in just 15 minutes of action keyed the Jumbos' attack that ended with the 90-62 victory, the team's second-highest point total of the season.

With Coupe hampered by double and triple teams all evening, Shapiro made the Camels pay by nailing 9-13 field goal attempts, including 6-9 from the three-point line. Between Shapiro and the rest of the team, the Jumbos hit 15-24 treys on the day. The long ball proved particularly effective in the final 20 minutes of play, when the team shot 78 percent (7-9) from downtown to put Conn. away for good.

"Connecticut's whole game plan was just to stop Coupe, so they had three or four guys on him every time," Sheldon said. "But that really opened up everyone else. They took away our inside game, but we had the outside game going pretty well."

McGlynn finished the game with 13 points, followed by Stovell, who was a perfect 5-5 from the floor for 12 points. Freshman Dan Martin, playing in just his fifth collegiate game after an injury sidelined him for the first half of the season, had ten points coming off the bench.

Martin and Lay have both contributed significantly in their limited playing time, which has help to add depth to the team. This depth should prove important over the course of the season, especially to a team that has been slowed by injuries in the past.

"(The risk of injuries) always worries me a little bit," Sheldon said. "But we're playing ten guys in every game right now, so people aren't playing quite as many minutes as they have in the past. One injury won't kill us right now."

The Jumbos' bench could prove to be a significant strength as the season progresses, with a number of potential starters coming off the pine. Junior Eric Mack, originally slated as the starting point guard before he was sidelined by an injury, has provided a spark for the team off the bench. Martin, regarded as one of the best athletes on the team, and Lay have exceeded expectations in their first year, and with Shapiro now the sixth man, the scoring potential on the bench is significant.

The Jumbos, currently in the midst of a stretch of seven straight road games, will take on Wheaton today. The team's next NESCAC game will be at Bates on Saturday.

"We've had a tough schedule all season so far, and this is going to be a tough week," Shapiro said. "But our confidence level is really high right now and I feel good about our chances."