With crucial NESCAC weekend awaiting, Tufts staves off upset bid from visiting UMass Dartmouth

Coming off a weekend in which victories over Wesleyan and Conn. College launched the women's basketball team (16-2, 5-1 NESCAC) to the top of the NESCAC standings, the Jumbos headed into Tuesday night's matchup with the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs confident in their chances of securing their fourth win in a row.
    Fighting through a snow storm to get to the game, the Corsairs were left with only five healthy players following an injury early in the contest. But the UMass Dartmouth proved a worthy opponent, barely allowing Tufts to eke out a 66-60 win, their closest margin of victory this season at Cousens Gym.
    "It was kind of a frustrating game," sophomore point guard Colleen Hart said. "I don't think we played our best. We have some big games this weekend, so I guess the best thing to do is to move on and start preparing for those games."
    Hart led the charge for the Jumbos with a career-high 23 points on 9-15 shooting, while junior forward Julia Baily also played a strong game, posting a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
    The game started out well for the Jumbos, as they jumped out to a 12-0 lead five minutes into the first quarter. But the Corsairs responded with a 12-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to one point at 20-19 with eight minutes to go in the half. UMass took its first lead of the game on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Kelly Whooley with 6:36 left in the first period and went into the break leading 28-27.
    The mood at halftime echoed last year's game against Worcester State, when the then-No. 18 Jumbos rallied from behind to avoid an upset against the unranked Lancers.
    "[The feeling at halftime was] not a good one, certainly," Hart said. "We just knew we needed to pick it up and we needed to want it. At times it seemed like they wanted it more than us."
    UMass was led by junior forward Tashauna Ashmeade, who notched a game-high 27 points and tied the score at 37 apiece with a bucket three minutes into the second half. Tufts jumped back out to a seven point lead, 50-43, with less than 12 minutes to play, but the Corsairs refused to go away, tying the score at 52-52 with 8:30 left.
    The Jumbos regained the lead a minute later, however, on a layup by Baily and never looked back. The bucket started a 14-4 run that brought the lead to 66-56 with 1:42 remaining, sealing the victory.
    Despite the difficulties the game presented, the Jumbos are seeking to learn from the experience.
    "We can't come out differently based on who we're playing just because it's a non-league game," Hart said. "I think we need our defense to be sharper and we need to be able to look to run so we can start to not settle for tough shots."
    "We definitely try not to overlook any team -- any game is just as important to us," said senior co-captain Kim Moynihan, who was recently named NESCAC co-player of the week for her performances in last weekend's conference contests. "I think as a team, it wasn't as much complacency as it was just bad basketball."
    The team will need to turn things around quickly, as next up for the Jumbos are two tough road matchups. Friday night, Tufts will head to Trinity to face off against the 15-3 Bantams, who sit fifth in the NESCAC standings, before travelling to Amherst the following day for a showdown with the team that ended the 12-0 Jumbos' bid for perfection on a buzzer-beater. The Jumbos will also be looking to avenge last year's loss to Amherst in the NESCAC Championship game, which followed in March, but it will be no easy task. Currently, the Lord Jeffs are ranked No. 9 in the nation and sit at 19-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference.
    "Hopefully it's all out of our system and we'll play some much better basketball this weekend," Moynihan said. "We're going to try to look ahead to this weekend and put this game behind us."