Last season, the men's basketball team had a down year, compiling a disappointing 9-15 overall record and finishing last in the NESCAC. As they opened this year's play over the weekend, the Jumbos again suffered some disappointment, leaving the Chuck Resler Classic Tournament in Rochester, New York without a victory despite two solid efforts.
Tufts fell just short against the State University of New York at Brockport Golden Eagles 60-55 on Friday and followed with a 67-61 loss to the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets on Saturday night. Although the Jumbos showcased strong defense — something that they rarely did last season — poor shooting dug the team into early holes that it could not climb out of.
"We've played decent-to-good defense all weekend, only giving up 60 and 67, and that was a goal we accomplished," senior tri-captain Jon Pierce said. "We don't want to be satisfied saying we played good defense all game, though. We want to be able to put 40 minutes of good basketball together and get the win."
On Saturday, the game was even at 51-51 with 4:31 left following a layup and free throw from senior forward Dave Beyel. But Rochester junior guard Mike Labanowski hit a three-pointer to put the Yellow Jackets ahead for the remainder of play. Senior guard Colin Cubit and freshman Jon DiBartolomeo made four free throws apiece for Rochester in the last 53 seconds to wrap up the win.
Beyel led the way for Tufts and finished with 24 points and seven rebounds on the day, upping his numbers of nine and six from the previous night. The squad also got a boost from Pierce, who added 16 and seven, respectively. The Jumbos shook off a cold-shooting first half, during which they shot just 27 percent from the field, to hit 14-of-27 in the second for a solid 52 percent.
"Personally, my improvement going into Saturday's game was just the offense clicking better and not shooting well on Friday," Beyel said. "The offense just worked better at times, and it wasn't really that we didn't play as well as the other team, but we couldn't play well for the entire game. We need 40 minutes and not just 20 or 30."
The first half of Friday's game was also shaky for the Jumbos, who quickly found themselves in a 10-2 hole at the start. However, a nine-point run gave Tufts a slim 11-10 lead after a basket from Beyel over 11 minutes into the game. Brockport answered with a 13-2 stretch of their own, including a three-pointer from senior guard Josh Zenkel to give the Golden Eagles a 23-13 margin five minutes before halftime.
"We went into the locker room at halftime and came out a little more focused and with a clearer game plan of what we wanted to do," Pierce said. "It showed in the second half when we were able to execute."
With just under 11 minutes to play, the Golden Eagles' 11-point lead evaporated, as a 15-2 run from the Jumbos put Tufts up 51-49 with 5:05 remaining in the game. Zenkel responded with a rally-killing three-pointer, and from there, the Jumbos went cold. Tufts did not make a single field goal in the final five minutes of play while committing multiple turnovers and missing two free throws.
"I think it just took us a little while to get comfortable in the first two games of the year," Pierce said. "We have been focusing a lot on defense in practice and were just a little out of sync on offense. We didn't come out executing like we should."
Pierce was the game's high scorer and rebounder with 21 points and was named to the All-Tournament team. Brockport's senior guard Jermaine Johnson, the eventual tournament MVP, had 20 points to lead the Golden Eagles' offense.
"Brockport really pressured us outside and didn't let us into the spots that we wanted to be in," Pierce explained. "We struggled with that."
Execution was definitively better in the second half, with Tufts' shooting percentage rising from 28.6 percent in the first half to 40 percent. The Jumbos did struggle with free throw shooting in the second half, though, and their five missed shots in 14 attempts may have cost them the game.
Although the Jumbos are happy with the defense they played all weekend, they feel a sense of urgency heading into their game at home tomorrow against the 2-0 Thomas College Terriers. If Tufts wants to earn its first win of the season, it will have to display more consistency than it did over the season's opening weekend.
"As for the tournament on the whole, I think we showed a lot of good things that we can do offensively and defensively," Beyel said. "And once we start playing our best offense, we're going to be beating teams. We know how we need to play to win games, we know that we can play like that, and, as a player, it's exciting to be starting to play at home now that we're starting to click."
