The Tufts men's basketball team knew it was only a matter of time. After an 0-4 start to the 2009 campaign, with its latest loss a two-point heartbreaker to Lesley on Tuesday night, Tufts finally tasted success against feisty Keene State. The Jumbos led nearly the entire first half, built a 19-point lead early in the second half, and held on to earn their first victory of the season, 91-79.
"It was absolutely a relief to win," senior co-captain forward Jon Pierce said. "We hadn't won since last January, if you look back. We lost five straight to end the year last year and four straight to begin the year this year. From the beginning of the game, we wanted to get that monkey off our back. We came out and played aggressive, everyone played within themselves and we were able to pull it out in the end."
After Tufts built an 18 point lead on a three-pointer by senior co-captain forward Dave Beyel with 13:59 to play, the Owls started mounting a comeback sparked by three-pointers and Tufts' turnovers. A three-pointer by Keene State freshman Geoffrey Woodbury cut Tufts' lead to just six with 10:19 left in the game. Having blown a five point lead with less than two minutes to play on Tuesday night, the Jumbos learned from their past mistakes and were able to bounce back against Keene State.
"[After Tuesday], we learned to play as a team," coach Bob Sheldon said. "We told them to forget about the score and just play hard. We'll do the coaching. Just play hard and do everything right. During the timeouts we told them, ‘We're alright. Don't panic. We're doing what we're supposed to be doing.'"
After Owls sophomore Derek D'Amours' jumper once again cut Tufts' lead to six with 9:37 to play, the Jumbos went on a 13-5 run to push the lead back up to 14 with just under six minutes in the game.
Sophomore forward James Long was a key contributor off the bench in the second half for the Jumbos, scoring all nine of his points and pulling down six rebounds in eight minutes of play while also assisting on a nifty backdoor pass to junior forward Sam Mason.
"I can't say enough about the performance that James Long gave off the bench," Pierce said. "He's been sort of up and down in terms of minutes, but he hasn't complained at all, and he's worked his ass off in practice. He came ... to tonight and crashed the glass so hard and pulled down rebounds in traffic and did everything we asked him to do."
Tufts got out to an early 15-4 lead, thanks in part to its defense and its rebounding. The Jumbos held an Owls team that came into the game averaging 87 points to a paltry 28 percent shooting in the first half, a large part of the reason Tufts took an 11 point lead into halftime.
"The thing we've been working on all off-season and the month leading up to the first game is help defense," Pierce said. "We were able to contain them even once we got beat. We had good rotations, we kept the ball out of the middle well, we challenged shots. In the first half we really made a commitment to the help defense, and it really showed."
The Owls didn't stop fighting in the last five minutes, but Tufts had an answer for every run, largely thanks to Pierce and Beyel. Beyel finished with a career high 29 points on 12-18 shooting, while Pierce, after not seeing much of the ball in the opening minutes, finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
"This is the first time in our first five games that they've both come up big on the same night," Sheldon said. "Until now, it's been one and not the other. This is the first time they've combined to play well together. They led as seniors should."
The Jumbos got an effective 10 points and six assists from their floor general junior Matt Galvin, while Long finished the game with nine points and 11 rebounds in just 14 minutes. Tufts also dominated the glass, out-rebounding Keene State 53-26 for the game.
"We've been talking about working hard on every play and rebounding is one of those hustle stats: You've got to go get it," Sheldon said.
Throughout the game, Keene State employed full-court pressure to try and force Tufts turnovers and to quicken the speed of play. The Jumbos, however, were well prepared for the tactic, and routinely broke the press for 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 breaks.
"We knew they were going to press and we wanted to attack," Sheldon said. "We struggled against Thomas [University] with the press and then we beat the press against Lesley, but didn't attack. Tonight, we told them we're going to beat the press and then attack; that's the progression."
Tufts now looks toward the weekend, when it will host the inaugural Big Four Tournament against Brandeis, Babson and Salem State. The Jumbos' first game in the tournament will be on Saturday night against Babson at 7 p.m. With its first win in the books, Tufts is already looking forward to their second.
"I think we showed tonight we can still be a very good team despite our 0-4 start," Pierce said.
