The women's basketball team had its first NESCAC weekend sweep of the season this weekend, blowing out Connecticut College 64-32 on Friday night and defeating Wesleyan University 57-47 on Saturday afternoon.
After a slew of weekend splits against NESCAC opponents, the back-to-back conference wins were a much-needed boost to the team's record, as well as its morale.
"This past weekend was really big for us," said junior tri-captain forward Kate Barnosky. "We needed to win both games to improve our league standing, but it was also important as a confidence booster going into another big NESCAC weekend."
Wesleyan on Saturday was a formidable test for a Tufts team that is still without Barnosky and senior tri-captain guard Colleen Hart, both injured. While the Jumbos were resilient on defense, they struggled to find their groove offensively, shooting only 29 percent in the first half. After 20 minutes of back-and-forth lead changes, Tufts entered halftime with a marginal 22-20 advantage over Wesleyan.
"Wesleyan was a tough game," sophomore forward Collier Clegg said. "The size differential put us at a slight disadvantage. They had some really strong post players."
After the break, the Cardinals went on a 7-0 run, holding the lead until almost halfway through the second half when a free throw from Clegg tied the game at 29. Shortly thereafter, a pair of free throws from freshman Caitlin McClure gave the Jumbos a lead they would hang on to for the remainder of the clock.
Still, the game stayed a nail-biter until almost the very end. With less than three minutes to go, Clegg and senior guard Vanessa Miller each added 3-pointers that extended the Jumbos' lead to 10 points, a deficit from which the Cardinals were not able to recover.
"Wesleyan was close for the entire first half, and really up until the end," Clegg said. "We didn't pull away until those last 3-pointers. Our defense was on, but we couldn't pull it together offensively."
The Jumbos finished with three players scoring in the double digits. Clegg tallied 12 points and six rebounds, while freshman forward Liz Moynihan was just shy of a double-double, netting 12 points and snagging nine rebounds.
Friday's matchup against Conn. College was much smoother sailing. After allowing the Camels a short-lived 6-0 lead, the Jumbos gave up only one more field goal for the remainder of the first half. A 10-minute run led by freshman guard Caitlin McClure's 11 points and an additional 10 points from Miller put the Jumbos up 32-10 at halftime.
McClure and Miller continued their scoring streaks into the second half, while sophomore forward Bre Dufault scored 10 second-half points on her way to 14 points on the game.
The Jumbos dominated all around, finishing the game with a total of 22 offensive rebounds and forcing 28 turnovers. The depth of the Tufts bench was a considerable advantage over Conn. College's shallower squad.
"A lot of different players got a lot of time," Dufault said. "Caitlin [McClure] had a big game, which is really encouraging for a freshman."
Miller — who scored 16 points against Wesleyan and has averaged 15.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 6.0 steals per game over Tufts' three-game winning streak — was selected on Monday as the NESCAC Player of the Week.
While Tufts was encouraged by this weekend's set of NESCAC victories, the team is now focusing on next weekend's conference doubleheader, as it will face Amherst — which leads the NESCAC in scoring with 80.7 points per game — this coming Friday and Trinity on Saturday.
A strong performance next weekend, Dufault said, would provide solid footing for the playoffs. The team last year lost a heartbreaking game to Bowdoin in the first round of the end-of-season tournament.
"We want to finish out the NESCAC season strong to get momentum going into the NESCAC and NCAA tournaments." Dufault said. "We don't want to have a repeat of last year's playoffs."
Barnosky agreed that next weekend's games against Trinity and Amherst — currently ranked No. 2 in the nation — will be key.
"We have two difficult matchups coming up," Barnosky said. "We played well this past weekend, but we're not fully clicking on offense. We need to keep working this week in practice to execute more offensively, while keeping our great team defense that we showed against [Conn. College] and Wesleyan.
The team will need to keep up its level of play if it is to be successful against next weekend's foes, Barnosky said.
"We're leading the NESCAC in scoring defense, keeping our opponents currently to an average of 48.1 points," she said. "We absolutely need to bring our top defensive game against Amherst."
With this past weekend's successes, Tufts improved to 15-3 on the season, and 4-2 in the NESCAC. They will travel to Amherst on Friday night for an 8 p.m. start and to Trinity on Saturday afternoon, where tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
