With posters and banners lining the walls, alumni filling the seats and hundreds of eyes on them, the seniors of the women's basketball team took the court at Cousens Gym Saturday for a NESCAC game one final time.
"There was definitely extra emotion on the court," senior co-captain guard Colleen Hart said. "I think everyone stepped it up and it was a fun atmosphere to play in."
And while the group received game balls, flowers and more, the greatest gift may have come from their underclassmen teammates, whose dominant performances sent them off in style with a 67-53 victory over Bates Saturday afternoon.
"Yesterday was a huge game for our team and especially our seniors," sophomore guard Collier Clegg said. "I know how much it meant to them to get a win, and I felt our team was extremely focused throughout the game."
Seniors Hart, guard Vanessa Miller, tri-captain guard Lindsey Weiner and forward Sarah Nolet all started for the Jumbos, and quickly got the offense going. Hart, who has been battling an ankle injury that has kept her out of six of the last seven games, hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring for Tufts, and Nolet followed it up with a jumper of her own to tie things up, 5-5.
But the Jumbos struggled defensively early against the Bobcats, whose large height advantage made life difficult for Tufts. The squad attempted help defense in the post, but Bates seemed to always respond with a perfect outlet pass and a spot-on 3. Junior guard Lauren Dobish was 3-for-4 from beyond the arch in the first half, while the team was an impressive 5-for-7.
Not to be outdone, Tufts shot 5-of-8 from distance, led by Clegg. Clegg was coming off a 26-point performance Thursday against Worcester State and looked as though she carried the confidence over to Saturday, hitting a pair of 3s early. Freshman forward Liz Moynihan also got six early points by slashing her way through the Bates defense.
The play of the team's younger players — combined with 15 Bates turnovers — sent the Jumbos into the locker room up a point, 33-32.
"When we got to the second half, the seniors looked at each other and said to each other, ‘This is our season on the line; this is our career on the line. It's 20 minutes for the rest of our season,'" Miller said.
The second half picked up right where the first half left off. Both teams were exchanging points, leading to two ties and two lead changes. Junior guard Tiffany Kornegay looked unstoppable early in the half, driving to the basket at will for layups and kicking the ball out if the defense collapsed on her.
After Kornegay made yet another layup to widen the lead to three points at 46-43, Hart — who had struggled with mobility all afternoon — made a pair of game-changing plays. Off a turnover she went end-to-end, zigzagging between two defenders before finishing with a reverse layup. Hustling back down the court, she caught Dobish from behind and plucked the ball right out of her grasp, feeding Miller for an easy layup and a 7-point lead — the biggest of the night up to that point for either team
."Everyone 1 through 13 had worked their butt off all game," said Hart, who was playing in her 100th game for Tufts. "I was just trying to do the same. My shots weren't falling, so I was trying to do some other things and hustle all I could."
From there, it was all Jumbos. Clegg continued to be everywhere, adding nine more points, a block and a steal in a run that put Tufts up by 18, while Bates managed only one field goal in the next six minutes, completely stifled by the Jumbos' defense.
"Our communication on defense in the first half wasn't where it needed to be," Hart said. "We let them get some easy 3s in transition, and that's not our game. We just turned it around, got back to where we needed to be."
With the game out of hand, coach Carla Berube put Weiner and Nolet on the court one final time before taking Hart and Miller off to a standing ovation from the emotional crowd.
While it was the seniors' night, Clegg and Kornegay stole the show — at least statistically. Clegg finished with 18 points and five rebounds, while Kornegay flirted with a triple-double, ending up with 14 points, 10 boards and six assists. Hart made her presence felt as well, earning nine points and forcing six steals from a turnover-prone Bates side.
"We all knew [Clegg] could shoot; she showed that in preseason, she showed that on her [Colorado College] team last year as a freshman," Hart said. "We knew she had it in her. Sometimes it takes a little while to get used to the people you are playing with, but she's hot at the right time, and that's what we need."
The win was integral to keeping hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament alive for a team that started the week No. 10 in the regional rankings. A victory over the Bobcats may do enough to leapfrog over Bates, which currently resides at No. 7. But even with the small boost from this game, Tufts is going to need to do serious work in the NESCAC Tournament to prove it deserves to make it to the national tournament.
That test will start next Saturday, when the squad heads to Williamstown, Mass. for the 4-vs.-5 game against Williams. The Ephs are No. 5 in the region and No. 19 in the country, and will be no easy task for the Jumbos. Tufts, however, knows it can hang with the team, having fallen just short in January thanks to an overtime buzzer-beating tip-in.
"We made a lot of mistakes, especially in the first half of that game [against Williams]," Miller said. "For it to still come down to the last second tells me that they are a team that we can definitely beat. We feel confident that we can play with them and we can pull off the upset."
But regardless of what happens next week, the senior class — the most successful in program history — will always have memories of what was a well-deserved send-off in front of a crowd of friends, family and teammates, both old and new. It is a day that, both for the victory and the affection, they will not soon forget.
"It was great seeing all the alumni I've played with throughout the years and people who have been such a big part of my career here at Tufts, off the court or on it," Miller said. "Being able to get subbed out and get that recognition at the end of the game, I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything in the world."
