It was an exhausting weekend on the road for the Jumbos, who dismissed Conn. College 83-55 on Saturday after losing to Wesleyan 58-57 on a buzzer-beater the night before.
The split leaves Tufts with a 12-5 overall record and a 4-2 mark in NESCAC play, good for a third-place tie with Bates.
"[Friday] was a tough loss to deal with," sophomore guard Oliver Cohen said. "But given the Friday-Saturday schedule in our league we just realized we had to come in to Conn. College and play with energy and toughness and try to forget about the night before, which I think we did a really good job of."
On Saturday, Tufts looked comfortable from the start. After trailing 5-4 in the early going, the Jumbos took the lead and never looked back. A three-pointer from Cohen in the last 30 seconds of the half capped a 5-0 run and made the halftime score 48-23 in favor of the visitors.
Freshman C.J. Moss led the surge, with all 11 of his points coming in the opening frame. Moss was a perfect 3-for-3 from long range in the game and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line while dishing out two assists. Sophomore forward Tom Folliard also scored all 10 of his points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting.
"We didn't want to come back from the road trip without a win," senior forward Alex Orchowski said. "[Conn. College] was a team we had struggled with in the past, and we did a great job extending our lead near the end of the first half to put them away."
In the second half, the Jumbos continued to pull away from the Camels. Their lead peaked at 33 points for a third and final time after a layup from senior tri-captain guard Amauris Quezada put them up 81-48.
Tufts shot 51.7 percent from the field and 81.3 percent from the line, with the bench scoring almost half of the team's points. The Jumbos looked deep at all positions, accurate offensively and proved to be the better team.
That was not the case the night before. At Wesleyan, Tufts came within two, 56-54, with one minute remaining off a jumper from Orchowski. However, a missed three from sophomore guard Kwame Firempong wound the clock down to 12 seconds and left freshman guard Ben Ferris on the line with a chance to tie it. Ferris made the first but missed the second try of his one-and-one and Tufts was forced to foul.
After Wesleyan missed its attempt from the line, the Cardinals fouled Firempong, who drained both to give the Jumbos a precarious 57-56 lead with 5.1 seconds on the clock. But the Jumbos' defense couldn't deliver, and Wesleyan junior guard Shasha Brown took the inbound pass and drove the length of the court before pulling up for an eight-foot buzzer-beating jumper to seal the win.
Wesleyan got the early lead with a 6-0 run to open the game, but the starting duo of Orchowski and junior forward Scott Anderson answered with an 11-2 run that put the Jumbos up 11-8 just over five minutes into the game. The game saw three lead changes over the remainder of the half, with the last tie coming at 1:12 remaining. Ferris missed on the next possession and Wesleyan added another bucket to take a 25-23 lead into the intermission.
After the break, Folliard tied it up for a fourth time and then hit three consecutive jumpers to single-handedly build a 31-27 lead. The teams traded leads seven more times over the next 11 minutes, with the last switch coming at 6:40 to play off a Firempong three that tied the score at 50-50. Both offenses were stymied for the next three minutes Brown went to the line to make it 54-50 with 3:07 to go. Orchowski and Brown each hit shots once more before the exciting finale.
"I think we could have done a better job taking care of the ball on the offensive end Friday night," Orchowski said. "In a low-scoring game like that, the outcome usually comes down to one or two plays, so each possession becomes more important."
Orchowski and Anderson led the Jumbos with 14 points apiece, grabbing five and six boards, respectively. But points did not come easily for Tufts. Moss was 0-for-6 shooting and Firempong — who is third on the team in scoring behind Orchowski and Anderson — made just one of seven attempts from the field.
On the other hand, the Cardinals were consistent and efficient, shooting 50 percent on their field goal tries. The Jumbos also looked shaky on the line, where they shot a paltry 57.1 percent, giving away critical points.
Tufts will have four days to regroup from the up-and-down weekend before traveling to UMass Boston on Thursday. The Jumbos will have to key in on Saturday's success and try to erase Friday's missteps to prepare for their NESCAC showdown with Bates.
"The focus for the beginning of this week is UMass," Orchowski said. "And after that, we'll look to continue to defend our home court and gather a quality NESCAC win against Bates."
