If the men's basketball team was rusty at all after taking a week off between games, it certainly didn't show it in Tuesday night's 91-81 win over Western New England College. With the win, the Jumbos showcased their dual threat of perimeter shooting and power in the paint to improve to 3-1 on the season.
The team was led by a balanced offensive effort, as senior tri-captain Dan Martin and junior tri-captain Dave Shepherd highlighted a group of five Jumbos in double digits with 17 points apiece. Martin's inside play, coupled with sharp shooting from the outside, gave the Jumbos a 20-point lead in the first half, enough to hold on as the Golden Bears staged a comeback.
"We had a great first half and we came out strong in the second half, but we kind of let it get away from us a little bit," Martin said. "But we won, and that's all that matters right now."
The Jumbos got off to a quick start, jumping to a 12-5 lead with eight points from Martin, who scored 14 of his 17 points in the first half. With 6:28 left in the half, the senior got the crowd excited by catching an alley-oop from Shepherd on the far side of the rim, pulling it under the basket, and hitting a reverse layup on the other side of the basket.
Playing against a team whose tallest starter was 6'6", the 6'8" Martin had a distinct height advantage enabling him to collect 14 rebounds in the game to complete a double-double.
"We thought we were bigger and stronger and we feel we're bigger than most teams, so we want to go inside and take advantage of having Martin," Coach Bob Sheldon said. "We don't have that many big guys, so we have to take advantage of them when they're fresh and get it inside to them."
While Martin beat the Golden Bears inside, it was the team's three-point shooting that really allowed the Jumbos to open a big lead. Seven different Jumbos hit three-pointers in the first half as the team shot seven of 11 from beyond the arc, part of an 11-of-23 performance from long range in the game. Sophomore point guard Jeremy Black hit all three of his attempts on his way to 11 points.
"We're going to take the threes," Sheldon said. "We want to run down and get it out. The reason we want to take the threes and make them is that that will open up the inside and we can get it in to our big guys. That way, we can get it in and they can kick it out so we can have an inside-outside game. I think when the threes are dropping, we're a really good team."
After taking the early 12-5 lead, the Jumbos scored 12 of their next 14 on three-pointers to open up a 26-12 advantage. While the Golden Bears responded with a seven-point run to close the gap to seven, the Jumbos pounced again, taking a 41-21 lead as junior Dacson Sears spun into the lane, put up a left-handed layup and drew a foul.
Again, the Bears responded by scoring seven in a row, but the Jumbos closed the half strongly, taking a 50-32 lead as Martin went up with his right hand as time expired.
The team picked up where it left off in the second half, extending the lead to 59-36. But the Bears would not go away, steadily chipping away and cutting the lead to 76-68 with 8:18 left.
"We were running our stuff and then I think we got a little too happy with ourselves when we were ahead by 22 and we started to take some bad shots and throw the ball all over the place to let them back into the game," Sheldon said.
The team turned the ball over 24 times, allowing the Bears opportunities to get back into the game.
"We just let it get away from us," Martin said. "We didn't play our game. We got kind of caught up in their game for a little bit. Once crunch time came down, we got it back together and pulled off a big win."
Midway through the second half, the team went without a score for nearly five minutes before sophomore Ryan O'Keefe took a pass from Martin on the break to the basket for an underhand layup. O'Keefe, who finished with 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting, went on a little one-man run, scoring six in a row to give the team an 82-68 lead.
While the Bears whittled it down to eight, Sheldon was never worried.
"We were a better team, and in the end we played harder," Sheldon said. "They played hard, too. I give them a lot of credit. I just felt that we were better and we were going to be okay."
The Jumbos will go for 4-1 when they host UMass-Dartmouth at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Cousens Gym. Tufts will look for a repeat of its 78-66 win over the Corsairs last season.
