Saturday afternoon in Cousens Gym, the women's basketball team finally resembled the squad it knew it was all along.
Following lackluster performances against Brandeis and Salem State earlier last week, nationally ranked No. 20 Tufts righted the ship, notching a decisive 68-43 victory over non-conference foe Colby-Sawyer and sending itself into the three-week holiday layoff with a 5-1 mark.
A week that began with the Jumbos surrendering 81 points in a home loss to the Judges and 62 in a narrow win over the Vikings two days later ended with one of their best defensive performances of the season. Not one player from Colby-Sawyer hit double figures in scoring, as Tufts limited the Chargers to a season-low 43 points on just 36.7 percent shooting.
"I think the defense we played against Salem State versus the defense we played [Saturday] was worlds apart," coach Carla Berube said. "We were two different defensive teams. Colby-Sawyer competes at a very high level, defensively and offensively, and so we had to come out at the beginning and play with intensity and aggressiveness and make it hard for them; We talked a lot about what they want to do, and we took away what they're best at."
"I think we showed some heart finally on defense," senior co-captain Kim Moynihan said. "We got into the passing lanes, we got up and pressured the ball, and our posts did a really good job. We really worked as a team, which was nice."
Tufts honed in its defensive efforts on Colby-Sawyer's low-post duo of junior forward Terri Duffy and senior center Emma Pasquale, who took court Saturday averaging a combined 30.5 points per game. The Jumbos' frontcourt trio of senior center Katie Tausanovitch, junior forward Julia Baily and freshman forward Rachel Figaro neutralized the Chargers' top threats, holding Duffy and Pasquale to just 17 points combined.
"We try to improve on every aspect of our game, but defense has always been our key," said Baily, who also contributed a game-high 20 points. "This week, we as a team really focused in practice on our defense, and I really tried to focus on defense for this game. [Duffy] was their best player, and to keep her under her season average was a good thing."
The Jumbos never trailed, jumping out to a 12-2 lead across the first 3:07 and building their advantage up to 14 by halftime. The Chargers threatened to make things interesting in the second half, whittling Tufts' lead down to six with 15:19 to play, but the Jumbos responded with a 19-0 run -- during which they received scoring contributions from six different players -- to put the game away.
In addition to Baily's second 20-point performance of the season, Tufts also saw a strong individual effort from Moynihan, who came off the bench for the first time since her sophomore year after sitting out practice last week with a nagging foot injury. In 18 minutes, Moynihan tallied 14 points on 56 percent shooting, including seven in a row during the Jumbos' game-breaking second-half run.
"Kim was a great spark," Berube said. "That was huge. She hasn't been practicing because of her sore Achilles, so for her to come in and spark us off the bench like that was awesome."
The victory marked the end of what was a successful first semester six-game stretch for the Jumbos. Despite spurts of subpar play, the team managed to pick up five of those games playing a schedule loaded with some of the best out-of-conference schools in New England, including four teams that appeared in the NCAA Tournament last season.
"It feels great to be 5-1, absolutely," Berube said. "It's better to learn our lessons early on in the season and learn them against great opponents; I'm pleased that we ended this semester like this. Hopefully, we can bottle up that defensive intensity and remember that that's how we have to play. We can't have games like Salem State; I hope we've learned from that."
Tufts will not hold another practice until Dec. 28, two days before it travels to Worcester, Mass. for the WPI Tournament. The two-day affair will kick off a slate of four winter break non-conference games -- culminating in a contest against NESCAC rival Bates that will not count towards Tufts' conference record -- that will serve as the Jumbos' final tune-up for NESCAC play, which tips off Jan. 16 against Williams.
