Women's basketball dropped hard by NESCAC foes

Bowdoin and Colby, the NESCAC's top teams, did not treat the women's basketball team well on its two game road trip through Maine last weekend. The squad suffered a 73-50 defeat last Saturday at Colby and fell to the sixth ranked team in the country, Bowdoin, 63-46 last Friday. The Jumbos are now 15-5 overall, but fell into a tie for sixth place in the NESCAC with a 3-4 conference record.

Shooting was just not the Jumbo's forte against Colby. The team shot a dismal 32.3 percent from the field for the game and 13.3 percent (2-15) from behind the arch.

"They just weren't falling for us," junior guard Maritsa Christoudias said. "A few times we had to rush our shots because we weren't organized, but sometimes the shots just don't fall."

Similar to the Amherst game last weekend, the Jumbos were throttled in the first, but settled down to play a decent second half. Also like the Amherst game, the first half deficit was so large that the team needed more than a decent second half to complete a comeback. At the break, the score was 43-26 in Colby's favor, but the Mules only outscored the Jumbos by six in the second half.

"There was nothing special about Colby that made us shoot poorly, we did everything to ourselves," Christoudias said. "In the second half, we picked up our defense a little, but not enough."

Part of the reason for Colby's success in the first half was its free throw shooting. The Mules shot 82.4 percent as a team in the first half, converting 14 of 17 attempts. In comparison, the Jumbos did not make it to the line as frequently and did not shoot as well, going 5-8 (62.5 percent).

One of the few bright spots for the Jumbos was the play of sophomore center, Allison Love. Love was tied with freshman Jessica Powers for the team high of ten points, but Love did so on 5-7 shooting. She also pulled down 4 boards.

One of the keys to beating Colby is definitely to control its center, Sarah Walsh. Coming into the game, Walsh averaged just above 17 points per game and against Tufts she dropped a team high 21. Walsh also grabbed 8 boards in 30 minutes of work.

Against nationally ranked Bowdoin, Tufts' problems were similar to those that cropped up against Colby, all stemming from poor shooting. For the game, the team shot 18-56 from the field, which is 32.1 percent. Free throw percentage also hurt the Jumbos as they converted 5-14 in the second half and 41.2 percent for the game.

"Free throws are entirely mental," Christoudias said. "We can't dwell on past games or we're not going to be able to focus, which we really need to do this week."

Love came off the bench, to score a team high 17 points on 7-15 shooting from the field. Freshman guard Julia Verplank also played well, tallying eight points, while shooting 50 percent from the field.

The Jumbos travel to Wheaton tomorrow night to face their last non-conference opponent before matching up against Middlebury and Williams at home next weekend. The confines of Cousens Gymnasium have been good to the Jumbos. They are 9-1 at home this season, with their only loss coming in overtime to Wesleyan 79-76, but are less than stellar on the road with a 5-3 record in away games. The Jumbos are 1-1 in contests with a neutral site.

"We are definitely capable of playing on the road," Christoudias said. "But we have had some lapses while on the road. But at home we get some dedicated fans and we're comfortable already. Also, for teams to have to travel from Bates to here for back to back games is a big advantage."

Tufts sits two games above Amherst and Trinity, who are tied for the eighth and final NESCAC playoff spot. The Jumbos can clinch a playoff spot with one win next weekend. With a sweep over Middlebury and Williams, the Jumbos would have a shot at the fourth seed in the playoffs, which would allot them one home game.