Tufts finishes third in season opening tournament

Over the weekend, the men's basketball team hit the road for its first games of the season at the Max Ziel Tip-Off Tournament in Oswego, NY. After facing tough man-to-man pressure that disrupted Tufts' offense in a 67-55 loss to St. Lawrence on Friday, the Jumbos bounced back on Saturday with a 69-60 victory over D'Youville College.

"We weren't really prepared to handle the pressure we faced the first game," senior co-captain Eric Mack said. "We had a lead, but they picked it up and we weren't ready. Then we gave up too many easy baskets in the beginning of the second half."

In the second game, the opposite was true for Tufts.

"We won because we picked it up defensively," Mack said. "We were down by ten and then we stepped up our defense and scored some easy baskets and just kept the lead from then on."

Against D'Youville, the Jumbos had an uphill battle as they faced a 31-17 deficit at one point in the first half. However, Tufts went on a run capped by a half court buzzer beater by Mack, cutting its deficit to 34-29 at halftime.

"We played real good D during that stretch to get a lot of easy lay-ups," Mack said.

The second half was all Jumbos, as they outscored the Spartans 40-26. Tufts' shooting percentage jumped from 36.7 to 59.3 percent in the second half, and the team shot much better from the three-point line (3-5 in the second compared to 1-8 in the first).

In addition, Tufts only made 12 turnovers compared to last year's team average of 19.

Sophomore Scott Armstrong led the way, coming off the bench to pour in 19 points in 23 minutes of play.

"We saw flashes towards the end of last year when [Armstrong] started to become healthy," senior co-captain Deyvehn East said. "This year he's going to get some playing time and can be a post presence for us."

Sophomore Dan Martin put down ten points and three other players had nine points in the win, but overall shooting was poor. The Jumbos shot 44 percent from the free throw line for the game.

"There was really no excuse to shoot that bad from the free throw line," Mack said. "We just need to concentrate or focus more when we get to the line."

The conditions of the away game were not in favor of Tufts. East believed the gym was a little colder and rims were tight. Mack thought that balls were in terrible condition. Those factors led to poor shooting, but also provided opportunities to rebound.

East took full advantage, pulling down five offensive rebounds and ten defensive boards for a total of 15 on the day.

"I knew since I hadn't been shooting well from the field," East said. "I had to do something to contribute to the squad."

In the contest, eight players got substantial playing time. When junior Reggie Stovell, who is currently injured, returns to the team after winter break it could turn into a four-person bench, for a nine-person rotation. East feels the Jumbos' bench will pay dividends.

"We have guys coming off the bench that can put up 15 to 20 points a night," East said, specifically highlighting freshman Dave Sheppard and Armstrong.

In Friday's game against St. Lawrence, not too much went right for the Jumbos. They only turned the ball over 16 times, but other than that, the game was tough, as the Jumbos shot 38.5 percent for the game and 25 percent from the three-point line.

"We just weren't used to playing offense against that type of pressure," Mack said of St. Lawrence's intense man-to-man defense.

In addition, Tufts only shot 52.2 percent from the free throw line. The team didn't see these low percentages coming.

"It's not like we have anybody that consistently misses free throws in practice," East said.

Sophomore Blaine Lay put up 17 points on six of nine shooting and eight rebounds, but was Tufts' only bright spot.

Tufts played its new 2-3 defense and it proved effective during some stretches, but was also scored upon at times.

"It worked well in stretches," Mack said. "Sometimes the other team made adjustments and we would give up a couple easy buckets and then we would have to make some changes ourselves. We played man-to-man the second game a little more than the first and that went well."

Overall, Mack said he felt the trip went okay and would have been better if the team went 2-0 instead of 1-1. He feels the squad has a lot of room to improve.

"We needed to learn how to win," East said. "The second game was a big step towards that."