A 52-41 loss to Bowdoin in the first round of the NESCAC tournament may have actually been a high point of the 2005-2006 season for the women's basketball team.
It's not as bad as it sounds; in their final game of the season, the Jumbos played the kind of smart, disciplined defense that has long been a cornerstone of their playing style. Holding the nationally sixth-ranked Polar Bears to their lowest offensive output of the year, Tufts owned a one-point halftime lead over a team that came away from Cousens Gym in January with a 73-56 win.
"We were in a bad position going in the playoffs and you never want to lose your last game, but the game at Bowdoin - that's the kind of game you want to go out on," junior Laura Jasinski said. "We played really well against them and left everything on the court."
Tufts' appearance in the tournament at all was far from a shoo-in, and is a testament to the best two weeks of basketball played by the team all year. Three wins in their final five regular-season games propelled the Jumbos past a five-game losing streak and into the postseason.
Still, it was too little, too late.
Stumbling through their conference schedule, the Jumbos' seventh seed pitted them against a Bowdoin team on the war path for its sixth consecutive NESCAC title.
The loss meant more than just a sooner-than-desired end to the 2005-2006 campaign. It capped off a frustrating sub-.500 season, ended the career of one of the most highly recruited players in Tufts history, and was the first losing record for coach Carla Berube in her four seasons as head coach.
After taking over a team that hadn't seen postseason play in five years, Berube led the Jumbos to winning records in her first three seasons. In her first year, the Jumbos finished with their best record since the 1990-1991 season, a 17-7 mark courtesy of a new brand of defense that surrendered only 56.4 ppg, nearly 10 points fewer than in the previous season.
This was exactly the same number allowed in the 2005-2006 season. The difference? The Jumbos' anemic offensive production, down nearly nine points per game from last season. Averaging a decade-low 54.4 ppg and shooting just 36.0 percent from the floor, second-worst in the league, Tufts' offensive woes were as mystifying as they were crippling.
The team lost only two seniors last spring and returned with what looked to be a strong and experienced core of two of its three leading scorers and five players who averaged over 20 minutes. Although the loss of Alison Love to graduation in 2005 weakened the team's post presence, Jasinski, along with sophomore Khalilah Ummah and junior Libby Park, looked to complement a veteran and talented backcourt.
Seniors Jessica Powers and Julia Verplank and junior Valerie Krah combined to score half the Jumbos' points last season, with Powers and Krah shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and 37.2 percent from beyond the arc.
While Verplank has been plagued by injuries this season, Powers and Krah, this season's leading scorers with 11.6 and 10.1 ppg, respectively, saw those numbers drop to 32.8 percent from the floor and 29.8 percent from three point land.
"We just didn't hit the shots that we were supposed to, and that came out of not executing our offense to best of our ability," Powers said. "There were spurts in games when our offense looked great, but the problem was doing that for 40 minutes."
Verplank's playing time was limited throughout the season and junior point guard Taryn Miller-Stevens was abroad for the first semester. With some familiar faces absent for much of the season, Berube called on the Jumbos' bench, and while junior Marilyn Duffy-Cabana, Ummah and classmate Jenna Gomez put in some quality minutes, inconsistency hampered the team from the outset.
"It was hard at the beginning of the year, not having two points guards," Jasinski said. "Marilyn stepped it up, but it's tough when people can't get out there every day and practice, and that shows up in our play."
Players cited a tougher non-conference schedule and a lack of consistency for the team's sub-.500 record, one which they felt overshadowed the talent on the roster. In addition to a stacked NESCAC schedule, the Jumbos played four top-15 teams this season.
"I don't think our record reflects what we accomplished as a team," Powers said. "We had a better record last season, but this season was more successful in terms of team chemistry and overall attitude. We played tougher teams, and it made us better overall. It can't be really measured in our wins and losses, but we wish it could have gone differently."
The team will lose Powers, Verplank, and its third senior captain, Katherine Miller, in May. While Powers has been the Jumbos' offensive go-to player during her career, leading the roster in scoring three of her four seasons, the team will return five of its top six scorers and seven players who averaged over thirteen minutes per game.
"We'll have five very experienced seniors coming back who've had these two seasons and know how good we can be," Jasinski said.
And leading them will be Berube, who, despite this season's 10-13 mark, is still 59-36 in four years on the Hill and has infused a playing style emphasizing defensive intensity and hustle that rings of her days as a player at UConn.
"From the second she came on campus, she took the program in her hands and turned it around," Powers said. "She demands the best from all of us, and she makes us better players and better people. No matter what her record was this year, she's keeping the program going in right direction."
