Women's Basketball | Jumbos get tripped up at Colby but salvage weekend with win at Bowdoin

    Playing without its leading scorer this weekend, the women's basketball team's high-octane offense came to a screeching halt. So, too, did its nine-game winning streak.
    Nationally ranked No. 11 Tufts fell to Colby 58-55 in Waterville, Maine on Friday for the team's first NESCAC loss of the season and its first setback overall in nearly two months. The Jumbos rebounded the next afternoon, however, scoring an impressive 67-56 win at Bowdoin to improve to 3-1 in conference play and 13-2 overall.
    "Any loss is hard, but I was really proud of us and the way that we bounced back against a really good team," senior co-captain Kim Moynihan said. "I think we finally had some glimpses of what our team can accomplish and the type of basketball that we can play, which is refreshing."
    Junior forward Julia Baily, who has contributed a team-leading 14.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game this season, missed both games due to personal reasons, and Tufts' offense suffered accordingly. The Jumbos recorded season lows with just 55 points and 31.8 percent shooting in the loss to Colby, and against Bowdoin, the team was held to its fourth-worst shooting performance of the year.
    "It's definitely different," coach Carla Berube said. "You're missing 15 points and eight rebounds, so it's not something that we didn't feel or that we didn't notice. We probably felt it a little bit more on Friday than on Saturday, when we all got together and pulled out a big win; I think we did a good job of trying to stay focused."
    Leading Colby 40-29 five minutes into the second half, the Jumbos appeared to be well on their way to their 10th-straight victory. But over the final 15 minutes of the game, Tufts managed only 15 points on 6-of-28 shooting, leaving the door open for Colby to make a comeback. The young Mules, who start two freshmen and feature no seniors on their roster, chipped away methodically, finally drawing even on freshman forward Rachael Mack's conventional three-point play with 4:33 remaining.
    "We were definitely out of our offensive game on Friday," Moynihan said. "Shots weren't falling, and we just couldn't get into the flow. Missing Julia was probably a big piece of that. She's a huge component of our offense, and we definitely felt that. But as a whole, we just couldn't find that groove."
    Colby pulled ahead for good in the final minute thanks to flawless free-throw shooting. With 47 seconds left and the score knotted at 52, sophomore forward Julianne Kowalski sank a pair of go-ahead free throws, and after Tufts misfired on its next trip down the floor, Mack made two more to put the game out of reach.
    "Give Colby credit: They're inexperienced and young, but they play with a lot of confidence, and they took it to us," Berube said. "We just didn't make plays when we needed to, and it was hopefully a little kick in the butt for things to turn around."
    On their final possession, the Jumbos took two cracks at tying the game, but three-point attempts in the waning seconds by junior guards Casey Sullivan and Vanessa Miller both missed their marks.
    Tufts managed to end the weekend on a positive note, however, knocking off a red-hot Bowdoin team that entered Saturday's contest having outscored each of its last four opponents by an average of almost 30 points per game. The victory was the Jumbos' first in Brunswick since 1991.
    The see-saw affair was locked in its seventh tie with 6:22 to play in the second half when Tufts took over. The Polar Bears scored just seven points the rest of the way — five on free throws — while the Jumbos hit their offensive stride, getting a pair of game-busting three-pointers by Moynihan and sophomore point guard Colleen Hart during a decisive 16-2 run.
    Five players reached double figures for Tufts, including Miller, who took Baily's place in the starting lineup. Freshman forward Rachel Figaro came off the bench to record 10 points and five rebounds.
    "It was definitely a grind-it-out kind of win," Berube said. "It was just an overall great, great team effort. Some people played minutes that they're not accustomed to, and they stepped right in, and we never missed a beat. It was a tight ballgame all through the second half, and to make plays when we needed to, both on the offensive end and the defensive end, it was great to watch."
    Though the weekend split knocked the Jumbos from the ranks of the NESCAC's unbeaten, the squad still could return to the top — they would, however, have to win each of their five remaining NESCAC games, including one at undefeated national No. 4 Amherst.
    "I think we're really looking to come out and take each NESCAC opponent one team at a time," Moynihan said. "Clearly, we need to show up for every game."