Going into Saturday, the last time the Bates Bobcats had lost was in November. That 16-game winning streak came to a screeching halt this weekend as the red-hot Tufts Jumbos stunned the Bobcats, 91-76 in front of a packed Cousens Gymnasium.
Before the game, Tufts held its annual Senior Day ceremony to honor senior tri-captains Brian Fitzgerald and Dan Martin. The two big men would be called upon to stop one of the best Division III teams in the country: going into the game, the Bobcats were 19-2 with a perfect 6-0 NESCAC mark. The meeting between the two teams was also the first since the Bobcats knocked Tufts out of the conference semifinals last February.
The seniors - along with the rest of the Jumbos - responded. Sophomore guard Ryan O'Keefe finished with 21 points, Martin turned in nineteen, and Fitzgerald came through with a dazzling 15 point second half to lead the Jumbos to the conference victory.
"People thought of us as an underdog, and we just didn't feel that way," junior forward Brian Kumf said. "We can compete with anyone on any night."
Bates started strong in the opening minutes, as a jumper from junior forward Rob Stockwell with 17:11 remaining in the first half gave the Bobcats a quick 8-2 lead. The Bates defense was aggressive in the early minutes, quickly pinpointing Tufts' leading scorer Martin as the threat that it would attack.
"They started doubling down on Dan early, and it took us a while to adjust," sophomore guard Jeremy Black said.
Martin, O'Keefe and Kumf carried the Jumbos back into the game with a 10-2 run of their own. The first half was back-and-forth, with seven ties and 10 lead changes.
Thirteen first-half points from Stockwell were countered by 12 from O'Keefe and 11 from Martin, and Tufts headed into the locker room at halftime with a 44-41 lead. Bates kept the game close for the first few minutes of the second half, due to the stellar performance of sophomore guard Brian Wholey, who finished with 21 points, and junior guard Zak Ray, who chipped in 12.
A jumper from Wholey with 16:49 remaining cut the Tufts lead to one, at 53-52, but the Jumbos were in control the rest of the way, exploding for a 15-5 run midway through the half.
Fitzgerald ignited the offense late in the game, hitting all four of his three-point attempts in the second half. After a scoreless first half, he finished out the final home game of his career with 15 points and seven rebounds, including an icing-on-the-cake three pointer as the final shot clock wound down for the Jumbos.
"That was the greatest last senior home game I've ever seen in my 18 years with this team," coach Bob Sheldon said.
Fitzgerald's performance was joined by an eight-point second half from sophomore forward Jake Weitzen, who finished the game with 13. O'Keefe and Martin, who walked away with 21 and 19, respectively, rounded out the list of four Jumbos in double-digit scoring.
"We had a lot of different scorers - that's what makes us so dangerous," Black said.
By the final minutes of the game, the Tufts lead was up to double digits, and Fitzgerald's final three capped off a decisive 15-point margin of victory.
Tufts' win came on the heels of a nine-point victory at UMass-Boston on Thursday night.
The game remained close for much of the first half, due to a 23-point effort from Beacon junior forward Tony Barros. But after a lay-up from Martin at the 10:25 mark gave Tufts a 21-19 lead, the Jumbos gained control of the game and came away with a 90-81 win.
Tufts has now won six straight games and is 10-1 at Cousens.
The team's regular-season home schedule is now over, but two big conference games remain. After tomorrow night's game against the Newbury Nighthawks, the Jumbos travel to Trinity and Amherst next weekend for a pair of tough NESCAC match-ups and a final chance to influence the conference tournament seedings.
A weekend of league matchups has yielded a three-way tie for first place in the conference. Williams destroyed Trinity, 77-52 in Williamstown, and Amherst beat Middlebury on the road, 86-78, to pull even with Bates and Trinity at 6-1.
Tufts and Williams are tied, sitting just one game behind the conference leaders at 5-2, and 17-4 overall. Williams beat the Jumbos earlier this season in a heartbreaking 82-80 loss at Cousens Gym, which would bear on any seeding tiebreaker if the teams remain even after the regular season. The top eight teams in the conference make the playoffs, with home-court advantage going to the top four teams for the opening round.
