For the first time all season, history eluded the women's basketball team.
Seeking their first-ever conference championship yesterday in Amherst, the second-seeded Jumbos came up short, dropping a heartbreaker to top-seeded Amherst, 59-53, in the title game of the NESCAC Tournament. The loss, just the team's third of the season, marked the second consecutive season in which Tufts fell just one victory shy of a still elusive conference championship.
"All of us are extremely disappointed," coach Carla Berube said. "It's tough to come up short in the NESCAC finals, especially because I don't think we played like we're capable of playing. I think that if we came out here and gave it our best shot, gave it all we had, it might be different. But we came up short, and I think when you don't play to the best of your ability, it hurts that much more."
Playing against a Lord Jeffs team that beat them on a buzzer-beater on Jan. 18, the Jumbos dashed their hopes for revenge with a sloppy first half. Trailing 6-4 at the 15:20 mark, Amherst put together a game-changing 11-0 run off of four Tufts turnovers to take the lead for good. Freshman point guard Colleen Hart, who had a game-high 15 points in Saturday's semifinal win over Wesleyan, was held in check during yesterday's first half, shooting 0-for-5 from the field with four turnovers and no assists.
The Jumbos attributed some of their sloppiness to poor play on the defensive end, where they allowed the Jeffs to dominate the perimeter throughout the game.
"Something that Coach always says is that our defense leads to our offense," said junior forward Katie Tausanovitch, who is also an assistant layout editor for the Daily. "Our defense in the first half was really poor, and it stemmed from a lack of communication. I think that we were working hard and that we had a sense of urgency, but it was just a messy, messy half."
Still, Tufts would not go quietly. Down eight at halftime, the team notched six of the first nine points of the second half to close within five. But 4:36 later, Amherst senior tri-captain Shaina Pollack drilled a back-breaking three-pointer to put her team up 10.
Pollack singlehandedly ended several comeback bids by the Jumbos, tallying 12 of her team-high 22 points in the second half. After Tufts closed within four in the final 30 seconds, she nailed four free throws to ice the Jeffs' first-ever conference title.
"That's what you want out of your senior tri-captain," Berube said. "She's playing the best basketball of her career right now, and there's no better time to do so. You just can't leave her open on the outside, and then she penetrates really well and handles the ball really well. She makes that team go, and she's a big reason why they've won as many games as they have."
Senior co-captain Khalilah Ummah was a huge reason for the Jumbos' comeback bid, tallying 16 of her career-high 25 points in the second half.
"Khalilah put us on her back and played some inspired basketball," Berube said. "That's what you expect out of your big girl, your co-captain. We didn't play well as a team, but you have to say that we fought as hard as we could, particularly down the stretch. I was proud of our resiliency, the way we fought and didn't back down."
But in the end it wasn't enough, as outside of Ummah and Tausanovitch's 34 combined points, Tufts didn't get many other contributions on the offensive end. The Jumbos' bench was held scoreless, and starters Hart, junior guard Kim Moynihan and senior co-captain Jenna Gomez were limited to 7-of-34 shooting.
Tufts advanced to yesterday's championship game by dispatching third-seeded Wesleyan Saturday afternoon in the semifinals, 67-50, as Berube picked up her 100th career win as Jumbos coach. The victory was Tufts' 23rd of the season, tying the 2005-06 men's squad as the winningest basketball team in school history.
The Jumbos' defense stifled Cardinals junior guard Ali Fourney and senior tri-captain Lucy Sprung, the NESCAC's top two scorers, to the tune of just 19 combined points. Meanwhile, on the offensive end, Tufts was far more efficient than it would be the following afternoon, shooting 44.8 percent from the floor as three players - Hart, Tausanovitch and sophomore forward Julia Baily - hit double figures. Baily also added 12 rebounds for her third career double-double.
Yesterday's loss does not end Tufts' season, as the team's regular-season success, in which it went 14-0 against a tough out-of-conference schedule, earned it one of 21 Pool C at-large bids to the Div. III NCAA Tournament, which were handed out late last night. As a result, the Jumbos will make their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and as one of the top seeds in the Northeast Region, they will be projected to make a deep run.
"It's obviously very exciting because it's the first time this program has done this," Tausanovitch said. "So I think that right now, people are having very mixed feelings. We're all extremely disappointed, but we're hopeful. We know that this team has shown in the past that after a loss, we fight harder and we fight back. We can't wait to get back on the court."
"It's not a consolation for losing NESCACs because that's the big goal," Berube said. "But it is special to be having the season that we're having, and to have the first NCAA game in the history of our program is something we should definitely be proud of."
