Jumbos hand Salve Regina first home loss in two years

As even Cal Ripken will tell you, streaks can't last forever.

The Salve Regina Seahawks learned this inevitable fact on Tuesday night, falling to the Tufts women's basketball team, 60-55, for their first home loss since February of 2002. The Jumbos, now 13-4 with the win, found themselves in trouble at several points in the game, but rallied back from a 13 point second half deficit for the victory.

In the first half, Tufts scored just 17 points and shot a measly 25 percent from the field. Some of these difficulties were attributed to starting sophomore point guard Julia Verplank's absence due to a strained hamstring. Classmate Jessica Powers had to alter her playing style to fill in for her injured teammate.

Though the Jumbos regained some momentum with four minutes remaining when Powers and freshman Jenny Muller scored their first points of the game to slice a ten point deficit in half, the team still went into the locker room down 22-17.

"It wasn't our best effort in the first half," Berube said. "Things weren't clicking and we weren't shooting well."

Much to the Jumbos' dismay, the beginning of the second half opened with an 8-0 Seahawks run. Salve Regina appeared to be breaking the game open as it pushed its lead up to 13 with a 30-17 advantage at the 17:31 mark.

At that point, Powers and Muller took over, as the duo combined for 29 points in the second half.

A three point bomb by Powers broke the Seahawk run, and then, after a jumper by Salve Regina sophomore Lindsay Frederick, Muller nailed a three to start a 27-9 Jumbo run.

When the dust settled, Tufts had earned a 47-41 lead with just over six minutes remaining in regulation. As a team, the Jumbos netted 14 of their 28 shots after the break, figuring into a 50 percent success rate -- a vast improvement from the first half's unsightly 8-32 effort.

"It was a different story in the second half," Berube said. "[Muller] came off of the bench and gave us a lift... we turned up the heat defensively."

Frederick led the Seahawks with 15 points and 10 rebounds while playing every minute of the game, but could not single-handedly overcome the Jumbos' newfound fire in the second half.

Junior Allison Love had another double-double, her third in the last five contests, as she netted 16 points and downed 12 rebounds in the effort.

The win gives the Jumbos a boost heading into this Friday's crucial match-up with Bowdoin, the top ranked team in the nation, in Cousens Gym.