Women's basketball team splits weekend games

The women's basketball team went 1-1 over the weekend at Cousens Gym , with a 69-61 loss to Williams and a 69-58 win against Middlebury. The victory against Middlebury was Tufts' first since the two teams started playing each other annually ten years ago. Despite the loss to Williams, the team still earned the sixth seed in the NESCAC playoffs.

Saturday's game against Williams was especially heartbreaking for the Jumbos. It was senior captain Hillary Dunn's final game at Cousens Gym and the team lost after having a 16 point lead with 18 minutes left in the game. Six minutes later, Tufts still had the contest under control with a ten-point lead, but Williams kept shaving points off.

With ten minutes remaining, Williams' sophomore Kerri McMahon converted on two free throws to cut Tufts' advantage to five points, 52-47. At this point, Ephs fans started to smell blood and Tufts was missing shots, fouling its opponents, and, in Dunn's opinion, not playing as strong defense as it did in the first half when they led the game by ten at the break.

"They came out strong in the second," Dunn said. "We had letdowns on offense and defense. We could have played smarter in the second. They threw junk defenses at us and we didn't handle it."

After back and forth play, Williams stayed in striking distance, never falling more than five points behind the Jumbos. Finally, at the 5:37 mark Williams edged ahead to enjoy its first lead since the first half with a 60-59 advantage. The Ephs did not fall behind after that point, in fact only four points total were scored in the last three minutes of the contest. The Jumbos outscored the Ephs 40-30 in the first half, but Williams turned around its game in the second half to outscore Tufts 39-21 for the 69-61 victory.

"We got a lot of shots, they just didn't fall," coach Carla Berube said. "It came down to the defensive end where we just didn't get it done. The (regular) season didn't end like we wanted it to, but (yesterday) we started to get ready for next Saturday."

The Jumbos have had problems closing big games throughout the season. They allowed Bates to go on an 8-0 run late in the Jan. 25 contest, Wesleyan to go on a 7-0 run in a minute and 31 seconds on Jan. 18, and shot 33 percent in the second half against Wheaton to almost blow an eight point lead on Feb 11. Berube believes these late game breakdowns are not due to lack of practice, but possibly due to team youth.

"It's just about letting down, there is nothing you can do in practice; it's about turning it on," Berube said. "I could make excuses, but it's just our heart. There is no reason we couldn't close out, we're just letting up."

The Jumbos picked up their 17th victory of the season and clinched a playoff spot all in one evening after defeating Middlebury 69-58 last Friday. The team was led by freshman Jessica Powers who scored 19 and cleaned the boards for nine rebounds.

Tufts built a ten-point lead at the half and never looked back. With eight minutes left in the game, Middlebury cut Tufts' lead to four points, but that was as close as the Panthers would get. Later in the second, Powers and sophomore guard Erin Connolly hit consecutive three-pointers to push Tufts' advantage to 11.

Junior center Erin Buckley scored 12 points, while freshman guard Julia Verplank chipped in with ten.

The Jumbos helped their own cause by shooting 80 percent from the free throw line in the second half. Tufts scored 16 of its 34 second half points from the charity stripe.

"Free throws are always important," junior guard Maritsa Christoudias said. "Against Williams they got 21 points from the line which hurt us. But against Middlebury we got 16 points in the second half off free throws which helped us."

Tufts takes its act on the road to Bates College for the quarterfinals of the NESCAC playoffs next Saturday. In conference games, Tufts is 3-2 at home, but is a lowly 1-3 on the road. But according to Dunn this is no issue entering the playoffs.

"We have a whole season behind us," Dunn said. "We have experience at home and on the road. It's just another game."

The team might have gotten a break by slipping to the sixth seed because it is in the bracket with Bates, which it defeated 66-59, Middlebury, and Wesleyan which it almost defeated, but lost to 79-76 in overtime. The other bracket includes Bowdoin (63-46 L), Colby (73-50 L), Williams (69-61 L), and Trinity (80-43 W).

"It doesn't matter who we are playing," Berube said. "I'm just proud of the girls because we made it. It is a step up from last year."