Tufts to face Trinity and Craig Coupe in first round

The men's basketball team will get a second shot at former teammate Craig Coupe and the Trinity Bantams in the first round of the NESCAC championships on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Hartford, Conn.

Aiding the team in its playoff conquest will be the momentum gained from last night's win at home over Clark, 78-75.

"This win helps a lot," coach Bob Sheldon said. "We talked about playing hard here and going into Trinity on a good note. We outplayed them, and it's a good way to be going into the playoffs."

The victory over Clark is one that certainly can inspire confidence in the Jumbos ability to take down difficult competitors. Clark is currently ranked first in the NEWMAC, another conference in the New England area.

"It is nice to see that we can beat the top teams in other conferences," Sheldon said. "It was also a nice way to send the seniors out."

For senior co-captains Eric Mack and Deyvehn East, it was the end to their career home games in Cousens Gymnasium, as well as regular season play.

"I couldn't picture a better way to go out," East said. "They were a good team with good individual players. Our guys made the shots and played good defense... This is the way we wanted to go into playoffs."

However, last month's trip to Trinity was not as fruitful as the Jumbos would have liked, as the Bantams defeated Tufts by a 22-point margin. The Jumbos were able to keep up with Trinity for the first 12 minutes of the game, forcing them to take poor shots and turn the ball over. Eventually, however, Trinity started to break down the Tufts defense and get open shots from all around the court.

The Jumbos have an advantage this time around with their knowledge of Trinity's strengths and weaknesses. The Bantams have a tough inside-outside game with sophomore leading scorer Tyler Rhoten and junior tri-captain John Halas.

The two lit up the Jumbos for 36 points and 11 boards the last time the two teams met. While Rhoten accounted for 26 of those points shooting 12-23 from the field, Halas nailed three out of six three-pointers, often at key points in the game, to quell Tufts' runs. Senior co-captain Deyvehn East and junior forward Reggie Stovell will be assigned the tough task of containing Trinity's top two threats.

Unlike in the previous contest, Stovell will be back at full strength for Saturday's bout with the Bantams after recovering from a stress fracture that has plagued him for the better part of the season.

Jumbo senior co-captain Eric Mack will have to be at the top of his game on Saturday against Trinity junior point guard Jesse Farrell.

Farrell is extremely effective at dictating the fluid Trinity offense and distributing the ball to Bantam shooters, mainly Halas and Rhoten. Farrell is one of the top point guards in the conference and Mack will have to put pressure on him in the backcourt and contain him at the top of the key for Tufts to have success.

The two-headed monster of sophomores Dan Martin and Blaine Lay will be assigned to contain former teammate junior center Craig Coupe.

In their last meeting, Martin and Lay kept Coupe pointless and forced him to commit four fouls in just 19 minutes of play. However, Coupe was effective in doing the intangibles for the Bantams, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out four assists in those minutes.

Perhaps the X-factor in Saturday's game will be sophomore forward Scott Armstrong. Armstrong has been hot of late, most recently against the Williams College Ephs' junior forward Tucker Kain. Armstrong torched Kain for 14 points making five of 12 shots and shooting 2-3 from behind the line. He also held holding Kain to just seven points. The Maryland native is third on the team in scoring with 9.2 points per game and has chipped in 3.9 rebounds per game as well. A good game from Armstrong will give the Jumbos a much better shot at dethroning the NESCAC's second seed.

If Tufts comes out victorious, it would effectively be the second seed in the tournament and face the winner of tomorrow's game between Amherst College and Wesleyan.

"Hopefully now we can go in there and beat Trinity," East said.