In a roller-coaster weekend, the women's basketball team knocked off No. 13 Bowdoin on the road, suffered a crippling injury and fell to Colby, dropping down to .500 in the conference.
Against the Polar Bears on Friday, the Jumbos played arguably the best game of their season. They held Bowdoin without a field goal for almost the first ten minutes, jumping out to a 12-3 lead in the process. While Bowdoin eventually got its offense together, Tufts held the lead for the entire first half and headed into the locker room with a six-point cushion.
After the break, Bowdoin came out firing with an 11-4 run capped by five straight points from junior guard Amy Hackett and gave the Polar Bears their first lead of the night.
The teams went back and forth for the next few minutes, with Tufts grabbing a fragile three-point lead. But senior guard Colleen Hart hit a pair of daggers — two 3-pointers in a 30-second span — to extend the lead to nine with eight minutes remaining. Bowdoin never closed the deficit to less than six for the rest of the game.
But it was not all smooth sailing for the Jumbos. Looking to close out the game with just three minutes to play, Hart landed badly on her ankle and was forced to sit out the rest of the contest.
Hart was still out when the Jumbos traveled to Waterville, Maine the next afternoon to take on Colby. Tufts rode the momentum from the previous night's victory and jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. But the Mules worked their way back into the game and after a closely contested first half led 30-27.
With Hart sitting on the sideline, freshman guard Liz Moynihan scored first six points of the second half for the Jumbos and gave her team a 33-32 lead.
But after a layup by junior guard Tiffany Kornegay, Tufts missed its next six straight shots. The Mules capitalized, going on a 10-0 run that put them in the driver's seat. The Jumbos never recovered and dropped just their third game of the season and second in NESCAC play.
Despite the up-and-down results, Tufts had plenty of positives to take out of the weekend, especially among their younger players. Moynihan added 16 points against Colby to the 13 she had the day before in the team's upset victory. Sophomore forward Collier Clegg also had a breakout weekend, with 14 points and five rebounds in the win and another 10 points and two boards in the loss. Senior guard Vanessa Miller took over at point guard with Hart out, and totaled four assists against the Mules.
With or without Hart, the Jumbos will need to regroup quickly, as they travel to Emmanuel tomorrow for a non-conference matchup. They will then be playing host to Conn. College and Wesleyan this weekend. Both teams are 0-4 in the conference and below .500 overall.
