An upset appeared on the horizon at halftime. Minutes later, the opportunity vanished.
Coming off back-to-back dominant efforts in its first two playoff games, the women's basketball team lost to No. 1 Amherst in the finals of the NESCAC tournament yesterday afternoon. Despite a great first-half performance, in which the Jumbos kept pace with the undefeated Lord Jeffs, the visitors collapsed in the second period, ultimately losing 65-39. The Jumbos had not allowed that many points since their second game of the season on Nov. 20.
Tufts came out strong at Amherst's LeFrak Gymnasium, trading baskets with the Lord Jeffs for much of the period. It was a far different start from the last time these two teams squared off on Feb. 4, when Amherst jumped out to a 22-2 lead, effectively ending the game 10 minutes into the first half.
This time around, Tufts did a remarkable job setting the tone defensively while sharing the ball and establishing its inside-out attack. Senior co-captain forward Kate Barnosky had a strong first half with seven points and four rebounds. What kept the Jumbos close, though, was their ability to defend the post. They fronted their bigger opponents down low, forcing Amherst into turnovers and poor shot attempts. As a result, the Jumbos entered halftime tied 24-24.
"We just attacked them from the start and put them on their heels," Barnosky said. "We did exactly what we wanted to do. We played confidently and took it right to them."
"I think the team came into the first half really focused and confident that this was a team we could handle," junior co-captain BreDufault said. "We knew it was a possibility that we had a shot in this thing and we wanted to come out and attack."
The second half, however, was a completely different game. Three Jumbo turnovers in the first two minutes of the period sparked a 16-2 Lord Jeffs run that stretched over the first 6:52 of the half.
It was all Amherst from there. Tufts scored 15 points on 19.2 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes, while Amherst seemingly couldn't miss, scoring 41 second-half points with a 60.7 percent field goal clip.
"I think Amherst just picked up defensively a lot more, and that kind of shook us a bit," Barnosky said. "To their credit, they picked it up in the second half."
The key to Amherst's late-game dominance was the play of senior guard Kim Fiorentino. While she struggled shooting the ball all game, her performance on the defensive end changed the course of the contest.
After spending much of the first half matched up with freshman point guard Kelsey Morehead, Fiorentino switched to cover senior guard Tiffany Kornegay in the second period. Against the speedy slasher, Fiorentino sagged into the paint, daring Kornegay to beat her with outside shooting. As a result, Fiorentino was in prime position to play help defense, and she effectively shut down Kornegay — normally one of Tufts' key contributors on offense — and forced her into five second-half turnovers.
Senior guard Caroline Stedman led the way for the defending national champions, finishing with 17 points. Junior guard Marcia Voigt also performed well, notching 13 points. Barnosky paced the Jumbos with nine points and nine rebounds.
On Saturday in the semifinals, the Jumbos defeated Bowdoin 55-40. After the Polar Bears started the game on an 11-0 run, the Jumbos clawed back to within three at halftime.
Following the intermission, Tufts outscored Bowdoin by 18 points, relying on defense and dominant rebounding. The Jumbos forced 21 turnovers while outscoring the Polar Bears by an 18-point margin in the paint.
Sophomore guard Liz Moynihan put together one of her finest performances of the season with 14 points and five rebounds, making five of her seven field goal attempts.
Although the Jumbos failed to win the NESCAC championship, they are nearly a lock to receive an at-large bid to the upcoming Div. III NCAA Tournament, and may even earn the right to host a first-round game. The selection show will be streamed live on NCAA.com today at 2:30 p.m and the tournament will begin this coming weekend.
This season, the Jumbos reached the conference finals for the first time since 2008 and they have already won an impressive 21 games.
"We are upset about the loss, but we had a great season with 20-plus wins and that puts us in a great position," Barnosky said. "We are excited and confident in hopefully getting the at-large bid."
"We did a lot of work during this season, and I think we should end up with a bid and do some damage in this tourney," Dufault said.
