Coming off back-to-back conference wins over the weekend, the women's basketball team continued its winning ways Tuesday night in Cousens Gym. Nationally ranked No. 11 Tufts survived an upset bid by NEWMAC rival Wheaton, winning 79-71 for its ninth consecutive victory.
Despite losing two of their starters to injuries, the Jumbos held off a second-half push by the Lyons to win the rematch of last season's NCAA Tournament battle between the two squads and improve to 12-1 on the year.
"It's their style of play; they take it to you," coach Carla Berube said. "They are aggressive, and they offensive rebound every time, so there is going to be a lot of contact. They came here wanting to get a great win against a top-20 team, so I would do the same thing and want my players to do the same thing in
their position."
The Jumbos lost sophomore starting point guard Colleen Hart when she took an elbow to the head after only nine minutes on the floor. Senior forward Katie Tausanovitch, who led the team with 23 points and 12 rebounds, then suffered an injury to her hand late in the second half. Following yesterday's practice, it was uncertain whether either would take court tonight at Colby.
"It's a big shot to us when our point guard is not on the floor, our court leader," Berube said. "It affected us at some points, and then I think the people off the bench stepped up and did a great job when called on. [Sophomore] Lindsay Weiner, [junior] Vanessa Miller and [freshman] Tiffany Kornegay did a great job in her absence. But without someone who plays the minutes like Colleen on the court, it was difficult."
Tufts took a 34-26 lead into halftime after going on an 11-2 run over the final 5:01 of the first half. They out-rebounded Wheaton 29-18 for the period and held the Lyons to just 26.7 percent shooting while posting 40.5 percent themselves.
The Jumbos appeared to have the game firmly in their control with 15:09 remaining when a conventional three-point play by junior forward Julia Baily put Tufts up by 15. But Wheaton chipped away at the lead, going on an 8-0 run between the 7:44 and 6:12 marks of the period to climb within four.
That was the closest Wheaton would come. Tufts bumped the lead back up to double digits just 2:33 later on a pair of free throws by Baily, and the Jumbos never looked back from there. Wheaton's 71 points, however, were the second-most allowed by Tufts all season, coming short of the 81 surrendered to Brandeis in the team's only loss on Nov. 30.
"I don't think our defense was up to par in the second half," Berube said. "You can't go from giving up just 26 points in one half to 45 in the next. I think it's a little area of concern; it's been our roller-coaster ride thus far this season. Some games it looks great, it looks unbelievable, and then other games it's a tale of two different defensive teams, one in the first half and the other in the second. It's something we need to talk about and get more consistent with."
The Lyons shot an impressive 87.1 percent from the charity stripe for the game, including 17-for-18 in the second half, good for 94.4 percent. But the Jumbos had the edge on the glass, out-rebounding Wheaton 50-35 and scoring 42 points in the paint compared with the Lyons' 26. Still, the physical nature of the game and the refereeing were points of contention.
"We have to work on not getting caught up in that," Baily said. "It was frustrating, but when it comes down to it, we have to concentrate and make plays and take our time."
Junior Jenny Champney led Wheaton with a game-high 26 points and added nine rebounds, while senior tri-captain Krystin Hickey contributed 12 points and eight boards. On the opposite end of the court, senior co-captain Kim Moynihan had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Jumbos.
"We scored 79 points without Colleen, so offensively it was a good night, but we let Wheaton score 71 points," Baily said. "One of our season goals has been keeping teams under 50 points, and that definitely did not happen."
Tufts will have the chance to make good on that goal when it returns to conference play tonight against NESCAC foe Colby, who is 8-6 overall and 0-1 in the conference. The Jumbos have won four out of the last five meetings against the Mules, and their nine-game winning streak will be put on the line when they travel to Maine.
"Colby is young, but they have some great talent," Berube said. "Its going to be a great game; I think every NESCAC game is very competitive. It's not easy to go up there on a Friday night, traveling that far and taking on a very good Colby team. It's going to be a big test for us. They are getting better and better with every game with their experience, and we have to come to play with our best game."
"It's a NESCAC game, so we're going to take it seriously because those are the games we've been working up to all year long," Baily added. "We're going to take Colby just like any other game — play hard and play smart."
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