Before Tuesday night, no one on the men's basketball team had ever played a game against Western Connecticut. But after a 95-80 win, the Jumbos can't wait for their next matchup with the Colonials.
Senior tri-captain Dan Martin scored 35 points for the Jumbos, shooting a torrid 12 of 13 from the field and 11 of 15 from the free throw line to move his team to 15-4.
"He was as perfect as you can be on the basketball floor," junior tri-captain Dave Shepherd said. "They just didn't have anyone who could stop him. He just played patient in the paint; he had a dunk on a fast break. He just played great."
Martin attributed his play to a hot hand and a poor opposing defense.
"It was a combination of them not playing great defense and me just having a good night," Martin said. "They really didn't have anybody inside that could've covered anybody, whether it was me, [senior tri-captain] Brian [Fitzgerald], [sophomore] Pat [Sullivan] or [sophomore] Jake [Weitzen]."
Although Martin led the Tufts offense, it was certainly a team effort, as five Jumbos scored in double-digits. Weitzen and classmate Ryan O'Keefe combined for 31 points.
Martin deflected the praise to his teammates, crediting the play of the perimeter shooters, as well as that of his fellow post-player Fitzgerald, who Martin feels does not get enough recognition, as his contributions do not always show up in the stat box.
Junior Brian Kumf also notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"[Kumf is] probably our hottest player right now," Shepherd said. "He's rebounding the hell out of it. He only had six shots tonight and he still scored 10 points. He's being very effective and you can't ask for anything more."
The Jumbos took a 41-31 lead going into intermission before their offense took off in the second half. Tufts opened the second period with a 21-8 run to take a 23-point lead with 12:50 left in the game.
At that point, the Colonials launched a furious comeback, going on a 34-18 run over the next nine minutes to cut the lead down to seven points. But the Jumbos responded and closed out the game, finishing with a 15-point margin of victory.
"They started to press us and we didn't get to inbound the ball in the places we wanted to be, so it made it a little difficult for us to break the press," Shepherd said. "But we were able to adjust and hold them off."
The Colonials were led by senior guard Greg Cole, whose 28 points on the night bumped him into sixth place on Western Connecticut's all-time scoring list.
"[Cole has] been lighting it up this season," Fitzgerald said. "[Shepherd] did a really good job just locking him up, and he held him scoreless for a long time in the second half, which was when we made our big run."
The game marked the first time Tufts played Western Connecticut since the 1999-2000 season, when an entirely different Jumbo roster beat the Colonials 68-63.
"It's always a little different because we still go over film and we go over scouting reports, but we don't see them as often, especially with a team like Western Connecticut," Martin said. "It was the first time we've ever played them, so we didn't know what to expect going to their place and they didn't know what to expect from us. So the first five minutes was kind of feeling it out."
The Jumbos will continue their non-conference schedule with a game at UMass-Boston tonight, a team that allowed the Tufts offense its highest point total last winter at Cousens Gym.
"We scored 116 points on them last year," Fitzgerald said. "They're more of an up-tempo team, which is how we want to play. It should be a high scoring game. If we can get some stops and get out on the run, we'll be alright against them."
