The women's basketball team entered Tuesday evening's match-up largely untested in the young season and hoping to play competitively against nationally ranked Salem State.
Mission accomplished.
If anything, the Lady Vikings should have been concerned with playing the Jumbos. Tufts' defense swarmed the No. 18 team in the nation, suffocating its offense, and ultimately marring its pristine 5-0 record with a 61-43 thrashing. The Jumbos improved their own mark to 4-1 on the season.
The last time the Jumbos trailed during the 40 minutes of play was three minutes into the game when Salem State held a 4-2 advantage. Once Tufts tied the game, it was off to the races, as the Jumbos built a 25-12 lead over the next 13 minutes and entered halftime with a 29-14 cushion.
"We had nothing to lose," said sophomore Kim Moynihan, who logged 16 minutes of playing time returning from injury. "They weren't expecting us to even put up a fight, so mentally we came into it a lot more pumped up than they were. We really suffocated them and they didn't know what to do."
That intensity was most evident on the defensive end, where the Jumbos forced 29 turnovers which they converted into 26 points, including 17 in the first half.
The Lady Vikings presented an unusual offense - a 4-1 set - designed to spread the Tufts defense and maximize their outside sharpshooting. Freshman center Danielle Jenkins stayed low while the other four players spread out to the wings, drawing the defenders to the perimeter and giving Jenkins more mobility underneath the hoop. The 4-1 set also plays into Salem's strength from behind the arc, as Jenkins could kick the ball out to the wings when the weak-side help-defense converged inside.
But Berube's squad did not try anything fancy against the Lady Vikings, sticking to full-court man-to-man for most of the game. Its help-defense was enough to neutralize Salem State's offense. Jenkins was held to a season-low six points, taking much of the wind out of the Lady Vikings' offense; Jenkins' 88 points this season account for over a quarter of the team's total.
"On defense, we knew we always had to be in the help position on the big player underneath," senior Taryn Miller-Stevens said. "She only had six points the whole game, which is huge because so much of their offense is this girl. We were prepared for that ahead of time, and they couldn't get any kind of momentum.
"We caused them to be sloppier than they usually are," she continued. "We got in the passing lanes. I don't know if it was them being complacent or lazy, but our guards were very intense on the ball, denying passing lanes off the ball."
By stepping in the passing lanes and nabbing 12 steals - five apiece for both senior Valerie Krah and junior Jenna Gomez - the Jumbos created quick turnovers, which led to easy lay-ups on the other end. Such a combination bolstered Tufts' 39.3 field goal percentage.
"Again, it was our defense leading to easy points during the break," Berube said. "Jenna and Val attacked the hoop well, and with [junior Khalilah Ummah and senior co-captains Libby Park and Laura Jasinski], we found ways to get the ball inside to them. Two, three-foot shots are always better percentage shots than 15-footers. We just really tried to pound it inside."
"We weren't trying to do anything too crazy [on the offensive end]," Moynihan added. "We hit the open man and relied more on higher percentage shots."
That steady play was enough to keep the Vikings in the rear-view mirror for the entire game. The closest they came to the Jumbos in the second half was a nine point deficit - 41-32 - at the 10:21 mark, after junior Melissa Macchi hit a three-pointer. Tufts shrugged it off, however, and scored the next six points.
Tuesday's contest was a much different scene from the previous week when the Jumbos nearly coughed up a 17-point cushion with 12 minutes to play on Nov. 28 against Babson. This time around, the squad refused to relent, communicating better on the floor and maintaining the same high level of intensity throughout the game.
"Basketball is a game of runs," Berube said. "We knew Salem State would come out in the second half a little differently. We knew a run was going to come and that we needed to respond right away. When it got down to nine points when they hit a three-pointer, we just went on a run. We came into the game strong-minded and we wouldn't let this one slip away."
Still, however, there were some problem areas for the Jumbos. Once again, free throw percentage was less than stellar, as the team shot just 52.2 percent in the game.
"One thing that has been our Achilles heel is our free-throw shooting," Miller-Stevens said. "We need to capitalize from the line. We could have sealed the deal many times, but we let them hang around. Looking to the future, we definitely have to make our free throws."
Tonight, Tufts hosts Simmons - a team it beat, 76-62, on Dec. 8 of last season - in its first game at Cousens of the 2006-07 season. A squad that characteristically plays zone defense, Simmons will force the Jumbos to counter with its own zone offense.
