Jumbos start season 1-1

The women's basketball team opened its 2003-2004 season at the Montclair State (MSU) Tip-Off Tournament in Upper Montclair, NJ. The team went 1-1 on the weekend, blowing out Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham (FDU-Florham) 84-49 Saturday, but falling to host MSU 77-73 in the down-to-the-wire championship game the next day.

Tufts trailed MSU 73-63 with ten minutes remaining in Sunday' final, but unlike many times last year, the Jumbos turned on instead of off under adversity and orchestrated a last ditch attempt at victory in the final minutes.

The Jumbos were within four when junior Allison Love drained a field goal with less than one minute remaining. Freshman Valerie Krah, playing in just her second collegiate game, deadlocked the score at 73 with 33 seconds to go.

"It was a great fight at the end of the game," coach Carla Berube said. "It was great to see we still had some fire in us. We turned up the defensive pressure and made it hard for them to get it over half court."

However, the Red Hawks were not to go down without a fight. Freshman Stephanie Machin (who would later earn Tournament MVP honors after her 17 points and 7 rebounds in the championship game) launched a short jumper over the heads of the Tufts defenders to put MSU ahead 75-73 in the waning moments of the game.

Tufts had a final opportunity to tie it up and send the game into overtime, but the jump shot fell short and a foul against the Jumbos was issued on the play. The Red Hawks scored the final two points just before the game-ending buzzer.

Though the effort ended in Tufts' first loss of the season and a second-place finish in the tournament, the team received performances from several player that give the Jumbos reason to be optimistic.

Verplank was named to the All-Tournament team with 13 points, five assists and five steals in the championship, as well as 12 points and six steals from Saturday's game.

"Julia is playing very well," Berube said. "She came back in great shape and confident from last season. It's great to see her leading our team. She plays hard and is one of the defenders that really put a lot of pressure on the ball. She has great instincts."

Love accounted for 11 of the Jumbos' 73 points against the Red Hawks and had 13 the previous day against FDU-Florham. Senior tri-captains Kate Gluckman and Erin Buckley contributed to the weekend's efforts as Buckley scored 11 points on Sunday, and Gluckman lead the Jumbo attack on Saturday with a team-high 14.

Freshmen Valerie Krah and Danielle Vardaro each broke into college basketball with a bang. Krah finished with 12 points on Saturday and had a clutch performance against MSU by tying the game with under a minute left on Sunday. Vardaro had a team-high 12 rebounds in Saturday's game.

"[Krah and Vardaro] both played well in their first college game," Berube said. "All of the freshmen did. Danielle is a tough, strong girl on the post and that's why she ended up with 12 rebounds in 14 minutes. Val is just a pure shooter and a great scorer."

Tufts earned its first win of the season against FDU-Florham Saturday in the first round of the tournament. The Devils were trampled by the Jumbos early on as Tufts scored 20 points in the first eight minutes of play. On the run, Powers had five points while Verplank and Love each netted four.

"We came out really strong," Berube said. "I liked the defensive intensity, the aggressiveness we played with. It was great to have all 12 active players getting a lot of time and we defiantly outplayed and outworked [FDU-Florham]."

The Tufts run-and-gun defense lived up to its expectations in this game. The Jumbos forced the Devils to turn the ball over 36 times accounting for many of Tufts' 84 points.

"[With] the pressure defense that we play, we got a lot of steals and didn't let them set up their offence many times," Berube said.

The Jumbos will square off tonight versus Johnson and Wales in their first home game of the season, coming off last year's 72-41 thrashing of the Wildcats. Berube feels that despite last season's success, the team will have to do a few things better this time around.

"They have some pretty good athletes that get up and down the floor," Berube said. "Last year we played to their tempo for a while and that can be a little helter skelter. This year we want to play our game. It will be great to play at home and leave for Thanksgiving 2-1 and feeling good."