Women's basketball prepares for toughest weekend thus far

The women's basketball team takes its show on the road this weekend to battle the top two NESCAC teams _ Bowdoin (17-1, 6-0 NESCAC), ranked sixth in the country, and Colby (15-4, 5-1 NESCAC) _ contests which will go a long way toward determining the playoff picture. The Jumbos are currently 15-3 and 3-2 in the NESCAC, good for a fourth place tie with Williams and Bates.

"[The games this weekend] are going to decide a lot about the seedings," coach Carla Berube said. "I don't care too much about that. I care about this because it is a big test. These are two great programs; they have been that for years. We want to see where we are at."

Bowdoin's only loss on the season came in a 46-44 loss at Cal-State Hayword, other than that, the Polar Bears have been downright filthy against all opponents. However, the Polar Bears one weak spot could be the fact that they have no go to scorer. The team's leading scorer, Laura Trenkle, averages only 14.6 points per game.

On the other hand, Trenkle's relatively low scoring could be attributed to the team game that Bowdoin plays, rather than to the lack of a superstar. The Polar Bears have three players averaging double digits in scoring and three others who chip in six points per contest.

"Bowdoin is the sixth ranked team in the country, they have a great all around team, they play hard, play smart," Berube said. "We have to play our basketball. Bowdoin as well as Colby have great attendance. We have to talk and move."

In wins against NESCAC foes Colby and Middlebury, Bowdoin's women's basketball team drew crowds of 530 and 430 respectively.

After the contest against Bowdoin on Friday night, Tufts travels to another rural part of Maine on Saturday to battle the second most ferocious beast in the NESCAC, the White Mules. While their name might radiate an aura of weakness, beware the most dangerous of these Mules is Sarah Walsh. In 19 games, Walsh averages 17.2 points per game and to complete the double-double, pulls down 11.4 rebounds per game.

"Colby has some big players who will be tough to guard," Berube said. "Both teams have good outside shooters."

Regardless of Bowdoin's rank and Colby's success throughout the season, Berube feels her team should not change its game plan. She holds fast to the same tenants, which have the Jumbos at 15-3 and ranked ninth in New England.

"We need to defend like we know how to defend, get into the passing game and play good post defense," Berube said. "We also need to box out and run our break. We will see what happens from there. Same thing every game for me, I want us to play our best game night in and night out."

Last Tuesday night's game against Lasell was too fast paced to give the Jumbos much opportunity to work on their half court offense. In response Berube worked on the motion offense with her team at practice this week in order to get some points off set plays this weekend.

"Lately it hasn't been as good as I want it to be," Berube said. "We are not executing like we could. We have been working on our offense in practice. We will be okay to execute when it comes down to it."

Berube feels her squad can run with the NESCAC elite, but in order to pull out a victory the team must play consistently for the entire 40 minutes of the game.

"Our goal is to work on defensive principles and give them a good game," Berube said. We have nothing to lose. I'd like to see a great competitive game."