After its pre-Thanksgiving 73-56 victory over Western New England on Tuesday, the women's basketball team took a three-day break from the court, which gave the players just enough time to nurse their physical and mental soreness - but not enough to get rusty before tomorrow's match-up with Babson.
The Jumbos were back at it again on Saturday afternoon, practicing for three hours in Cousens Gym. They may have had a brief vacation from Cousens, but each player made sure it wasn't a total vacation from basketball.
"Before we left for break, we made a point of making sure everyone was going to do some kind of workout over break," senior co-captain Libby Park said. "It was a long break. I don't think the layoff [will affect the team adversely]."
The squad left for the break on a high-note, reaching its season-high in points and nudging its record above .500, to 2-1, for the first time in the young 2006-07 season. Led by junior Khalilah Ummah's double-double - 14 points and 12 rebounds - the team recorded solid field goal percentages in both halves with 39.4 percent in the first and 42.4 percent in the second: something that eluded the squad throughout the 2005-06 campaign.
As has been the theme this year, the Jumbos relied on Ummah's inside play, along with senior co-captains Laura Jasinski and Park. So far, the trio has been the bright spot this season, complimenting a cast of proficient guards on the perimeter. On Tuesday, the three forwards scored nearly half of the team's total points.
"Khalilah's success this year has a lot to do with confidence," coach Carla Berube said. "We're focusing on getting the ball into the post more, and when she catches it, she knows she's going to score. She has always had the talent. Libby and Laura are working hard. When they're working well together, they're screening and looking for each other high-low. We're doing a great job on the offensive boards, and a lot of points are coming from that."
In addition to the seasoned inside players, Berube has been calling on freshman point guard Vanessa Miller to spell senior starters Valerie Krah and Taryn Miller-Stevens. Averaging just under 20 minutes a game, Miller has been receiving the bulk of the minutes off the bench, along with Ummah.
"From watching her play in the practices leading up to first game, I knew she was going to be able to help us out," Berube said. "She works hard, she puts a lot of pressure on the opposition and she's done a great job of going in there when the other guards need a break."
"I'm not surprised that she has taken on that role," Miller-Stevens added. "Vanessa provides a spark off the bench that's needed, especially at the point guard position when we want to push the ball up the court the whole game. She has the ability to keep the tempo of the game high."
The Jumbos will continue to look for bench production against Babson tomorrow, a team that they beat by 10 points in November last year.
Babson is 1-2 on the season, having started out its schedule against a couple of opponents familiar to the Jumbos. The Beavers hosted the Babson/Irving Oil Tournament in the season's opening weekend, beating Colby 61-54 in their first game, but suffered their first loss to Bates in the tournament final, 75-64.
The Jumbos will not square off against either of those teams until after winter break, but with Babson having provided stiff competition for both teams, Berube's squad may receive a sneak preview of the level of play in the NESCAC this season.
Once January rolls around, however, Tufts and its NESCAC counterparts will most likely look a lot different, having had more than a month to develop. For now, Berube is looking more intently at the progression of her own team rather than that of her opponents, focusing on communication on the floor, defensive pressure and fast breaks.
The team has a slightly unbalanced schedule over the next couple of weeks: After tomorrow's game, the Jumbos don't play again for another week, when they'll take on Salem State on Dec. 5. Then the team has games on Dec. 7 and 9 before taking a two-week hiatus for finals and Christmas.
