After extending a winning streak against one NESCAC rival, the women's basketball team has been given the chance to end a losing streak against another.
Nationally ranked No. 15 Tufts defeated Wesleyan 71-57 in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Cousens Gym, marking the second consecutive season that the Jumbos have eliminated the Cardinals from postseason play.
The victory sets up a semifinal showdown next weekend that will pit Tufts, seeded third in the conference tournament, against second-seeded and national No. 6 Amherst. The Jumbos have lost their last three meetings with the Lord Jeffs, all by single digits. The last time the teams faced each other in the postseason was in last year's conference championship game when Amherst walked away with a six-point win. The sting of the recent setbacks has Tufts hungry for revenge.
"There's no other team we'd rather play more than Amherst," coach Carla Berube said. "We'll be excited for it, and I'm sure we'll be up for it."
Tufts will enter its eagerly anticipated rematch with Amherst on the heels of its fifth-straight victory over Wesleyan, a run that dates back to the 2006-07 season. In this latest meeting between the two teams, the Jumbos seized control during a second-half surge in which they scored 40 points while shooting a blistering 56.3 percent from the field. Tufts began pulling away with 13:22 to play, when a three-pointer from sophomore point guard Colleen Hart sparked a 22-9 run that turned a seven-point lead into a 20-point blowout.
"The second half was Jumbo basketball," Berube said. "We defended well, and we did a much better job of defensive rebounding and taking those rebounds and converting them into easier shots on the other end.
While Tufts' offense cracked the 70-point mark for the first time since Jan. 31, the team's defense went to work limiting Wesleyan senior guard Ali Fourney, who was averaging a conference-leading 18.8 points per game heading into Saturday's contest. Fourney did manage 16 points on Saturday, but the trio of senior co-captain Kim Moynihan, junior forward Casey Sullivan and freshman guard Tiffany Kornegay helped keep the Cardinals' all-time leading scorer to just 6-of-16 shooting, an off day for a player who shot 47.9 percent from the floor during the regular season.
"Kim and Tiffany and whoever else covered her made it tough for her to get good shots," Hart said. "We tried to help in there, but they have a pretty well-rounded team, so we couldn't just leave anyone open, and she did get her looks. She's a tough player, but I think we at least made her frustrated."
Tufts also clamped down on Wesleyan's other premier offensive threat, graduate co-captain Lucy Sprung, who was limited to just 3-of-10 shooting on Saturday. In the four games the Jumbos and Cardinals have played against each other since the start of last season, the league's third-leading scorer Sprung has been held under her season scoring average every time.
"I think we've matched up with Wesleyan pretty well over the last few years," Moynihan said. "[Saturday], as a team, we all buckled down and played really good defense. They have some people who can score, but we really picked up defensively, which was great to see."
Every Tufts starter finished with at least eight points, paced by Moynihan, who tallied 14 points three weeks after dropping a career-high 26 on Wesleyan during the regular season. Hart posted a strong all-around game with 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists, while senior forward Katie Tausanovitch was a force inside, racking up 12 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks.
Tufts will use the remainder of the week to prepare for Amherst, which walloped seventh-seeded Colby 77-36 in its first-round game on Saturday. The two teams will square off next Saturday at Bowdoin, which earned the right to host the final two rounds of the NESCAC Tournament as the highest remaining seed.
"I think it's great that we finally get to play them on a neutral court," Moynihan said. "We could have drawn any team, but with Amherst in particular, there is a lot of history and a lot of motivation."
