Jumbos dam Beavers with big win

A week had elapsed since the women's basketball team's last game, but the time off for the holidays did not stop the Jumbos from routing their second straight opponent. Tufts trounced the non-league Babson Beavers last night, 79-57, to bring its season record up to 3-1 and push Babson down to the .500 mark at 2-2.

The Jumbos began the game looking fresh and fiery. The team jumped out to a 10-0 lead just two minutes in. With several steal conversions and high energy on both ends of the court, Tufts had the Beavers wondering how to stop the Jumbo stampede.

In addition to the early offensive explosion, the team played a full court press defense for most of the game, taking advantage of its athleticism and depth.

"[The press] lets us get up and down the court and set up an offense every time," coach Carla Berube said.

Every active Jumbo player spent time on the court in this game due to Berube's physically demanding strategy.

"Even without a big lead, I'm going to put these players in," Berube said. "We need them. The good thing is that with our bench we can sub in and deflate the opponent."

Tufts looked as unrelenting as the force of gravity for most of the first half. With 44 points and 11 steals in the opening 20 minutes, the Jumbos were clearly the dominant squad.

Senior tri-captain Maritsa Christoudias had seven points, two assists and two steals while fellow senior tri-captain Erin Buckley and sophomore Jessica Powers netted eight points a piece.

Buckley and junior Allison Love also utilized their height (6'1" and 5'10", respectively) over a small Babson team. At the half, Love had six points, two rebounds and two blocks, while Buckley added to her eight points with one block and four boards.

"I knew that Babson was a shorter team with no one over six feet," Buckley said. "That gave me confidence going into the game [and] gave me an advantage on both offense and defense."

Leading the team in steals with three at the half was sophomore Julia Verplank.

Tufts ended the first half with a comfortable 44-29 advantage. However, the Beavers came out with a new intensity and a zone defense in the second session. The Beavers began stealing the ball and capitalizing on Jumbo mistakes. However, the Tufts offense adjusted accordingly to the zone, keeping the Beavers at bay despite the momentum shift.

"We moved the ball around and got good shots," Berube said. "We crashed the boards and got some good offensive rebounds."

Though the Jumbo lead was never threatened -- the closest Babson came was within 13 points (52-39) five minutes into the second half -- their execution continued to waver at times and resulted in several intercepted long passes and some traveling and double dribble violations.

"We need to work on keeping our focus and playing the whole 40 minutes," Buckley said.

Play was stopped briefly late in the second half due to a knee injury to Babson's junior guard Amanda Hellen. Hellen was helped off the court with her right leg bent at a 90-degree angle the wrong way.

All in all, the Jumbos were satisfied with yet another substantial victory. The team will use this, and each subsequent game, as a learning experience and chance to improve as it prepares for the important NESCAC games coming up after the winter holidays.

"It was a good win for us," Berube said. "But there is a lot we need to work on."

Tufts now stands at 3-1 on the year going into tomorrow's home game against Gordon. Last year, the Jumbos beat Gordon on the road 68-52.

"We have to play our game against a good Gordon team," Berube said.