After a desperately needed week off to regroup from a tough opening weekend of NESCAC play, the men's basketball team triumphed in two crucial games this weekend at Bowdoin and Colby.
With wins over both the Polar Bears and the Mules, the Jumbos snapped their four-game losing streak, evened their conference record to 2-2 and catapulted into fourth place in the NESCAC.
"We knew from the beginning of the season that we needed these two wins," sophomore forward Scott Anderson said. "They're two NESCAC teams that aren't ranked in the top-10 like Middlebury or Williams and definitely ones we should have gotten. We knew that if we wanted to make an impression on the NESCAC and everyone else in Division III, we needed to get these wins."
On Saturday afternoon, still riding the momentum from the win over Bowdoin, Tufts defeated Colby 78-66 to complete the team's first road NESCAC weekend sweep since Jan. 26-27, 2007. After heading to halftime with a 28-24 lead, the Jumbos exploded for 50 second-half points while shooting an otherworldly 77 percent (17-for-22) from the field.
"We knew that we had to work through our plays," Anderson said. "A lot of times in the first half, if we wouldn't get that first initial pass we would kind of freak out and try and run a scramble. In the second half we would run through our plays and find open guys."
With 8:13 remaining in the game, Colby trimmed Tufts' lead to just four, at 50-46, but the Jumbos responded with a quick 10-2 run, keyed by a three-point play by Anderson and a 3-pointer by freshman guard Oliver Cohen. But the Mules, urged on by the crowd of 475 at Wadsworth Gymnasium, managed to cut the lead to six with 3:10 left on a lay-up by senior co-captain Christian Van Loenen.
From there, however, the Jumbos took over. A 14-2 run by Tufts over the next three minutes ballooned the visitors' lead to 18 with under a minute to go.
The Jumbos were led by sophomore guard Amauris Quezada, who scored 28 points on an ultra-efficient 11-for-14 shooting night, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
"He was on fire," Anderson said. "We needed someone to step up like that and I can't say enough about how big that was. Everyone was tired and we needed someone who was going to score more than 20. It was impressive to say the least."
Tufts also received a boost from freshman Kwame Firempong, who scored 10 points, dished out five assists, and brought down four rebounds off the bench. Junior Alex Orchowski and Anderson also finished in double figures, with 10 points each.
Tufts finished the game shooting 58 percent from the field and 54 percent (7-for-13) from beyond the arc, and also set a season-high with 20 assists.
"I think in both games, both first halves were pretty low-scoring and I think it's attributed to just not making shots," junior forward James Long said. "The coaches told us at halftime that shots were going to fall, and they stressed that if we continued to play sound defense, the offense would come."
While Saturday's game — particularly the second half — displayed Tufts' potential on the offensive end, Friday night's 64-55 victory over offensive-minded Bowdoin demonstrated Tufts' ability to effectively shut down an opponent for long stretches of time.
The Jumbos held the Polar Bears to a season-low in points, field-goal percentage (36 percent) and assists (seven), and managed to contain the conference's leading scorer, junior forward Will Hanley, to 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
"We were keying on Hanley," Anderson said. "Every time he would get the ball, we would help off, and I would help off the other big guy, and sag off. … He still played really well, but we held him to his average, which is all we could ask for really."
Tufts got off to a slow start and trailed 14-4 early on, but with 7:42 remaining in the opening frame, Tufts clamped down on Bowdoin's offense for the rest of the half, turning a 19-12 deficit into a 22-19 halftime lead. The Polar Bears hit on just 8 of 31 shots in the period, though the Jumbos weren't any better, shooting just 25 percent.
Both teams' offenses found better rhythms in the second half, but Tufts managed to slowly expand its slim halftime lead and keep Bowdoin at bay. In a three-minute span early in the second half, a pair of 3-pointers by Quezada and Cohen, combined with five points from Anderson, pushed the Jumbos' lead to 11, at 40-29. From then on, the Jumbos did just enough to hold off the Polar Bears.
It has been a quick turnaround for the Jumbos, who, even after losing last year's star Jon Pierce (LA '10), have now surpassed their 2009-10 win total of six. Tufts aims to keep its momentum rolling in a home game Tuesday versus Wheaton.
"The good thing is we have a game right away," Long said. "Sometimes you get those long weeks of practice before NESCAC weekends where you can lose a little bit of focus, but I think Tuesday's a great opportunity for us."
This coming weekend could prove vital in Tufts' quest to qualify for the NESCAC tournament for the first time since the 2006-07 season, a fact not lost on the Jumbos.
"In the bigger picture, two NESCAC wins are huge," Long said. "Every weekend, each game is huge if you want to make the playoffs. To grab two early in the season was huge for us."
