Jumbos outpace Cardinals behind Vinny's 37 points

The Tufts Jumbos (22-6) vanquished the St. John Fisher Cardinals (23-6) on Saturday night in the second round of the Div. III NCAA men’s basketball tournament, 94-81. With the victory, Tufts now advances to the Sweet Sixteen for the second consecutive season.Meeting them there will be the Babson Beavers (27-2), the No. 3 team in the country.

The Jumbos reached the second round after edging out the Salem State Vikings (17-11) on Friday. For their part, the Cardinals had advanced after beating the St. Lawrence Saints (20-7), 77-72. Against the Saints, Cardinals first-year guard Sammy Robinson led all players with 20 points off the bench, while senior center Keegan Ryan earned a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Jumbos and the Cardinals traded the lead multiple times during the first half of their encounter. St. John Fisher’s lead grew to as many as eight points when a lay-up by Ryan gave the Cardinals a 24-16 advantage. Tufts swiftly responded, however, by scoring the next 12 points to retake the lead. Boosted by junior guard Vincent Pace’s 19 first half points, the Jumbos entered the break with a 42-35 advantage.

St. John Fisher dragged itself back into contention during the first part of the second half, culminating in a pair of free throws by Ryan to knot the game up at 56 with 12:56 remaining in the game. Pace immediately answered by knocking down a three-point shot to give Tufts the lead for good. The Jumbos’ advantage grew to as high as 15, and they ended up with a double-digit tournament win.

Pace had an outstanding offensive performance against St. John Fisher, scoring a career-high 37 points on just 17 shots.Senior tri-captain guard Tarik Smith posted 17 points and seven assists, while senior tri-captain center Tom Palleschi contributed 12 points and four rebounds to the winning effort.

"Vinny [Pace] had a game, an absolute game," Palleschi said. "[Ryan] was good though. He had 33 [points] and 11 [rebounds]. He was an absolute monster. Other than that, I wouldn't say that we shut them down, but we stopped them as best we could and having Vinny step up the way he did -- I owe my career to him after that."

According to Pace, the record-setting night was the result of dedicated preparation.

“I’ve just been taking some extra shots after practice. [I’m] just really trying to get it going, because I haven’t really shot particularly well all year,” he said. “When you get it going like that, you just want to stay in the flow of the game [and] not force up bad shots … [you] just take shots within the game and let it come to you.”

Ryan, meanwhile, performed admirably for the thwarted Cardinals, scoring 33 points and grabbing 11 boards in his final game.Robinson chipped in with 14 bench points, 10 of which came in the second half. Additionally, Cardinals junior guard Tyler English put up 14 points before fouling out in the last minute of the encounter.

The night before, Tufts held off Salem State, 84-81. The two teams kept apace of one another from start to finish, with the lead changing nine times and neither squad establishing a double-digit lead at any point in time. Tufts’ largest lead of the game came when sophomore guard Ethan Feldman sunk a shot from beyond the arc to give the Jumbos a 33-24 lead with 2:53 left in the first half. Salem State swiftly struck back, however, and a three-pointer by first-year guard Sean Bryan with the clock running down cut Tufts’ lead to 40-35 going into the break.

In the second half, the Vikings' senior co-captain forward Marcus Faison bore much of his team’s scoring load, as the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) tournament MVP put up more points in the second period (21, on an efficient 10-for-12 shooting) than did the other four Salem State starters combined (18). Faison’s heroics alone were not enough to power his team to victory, however, and a pair of free throws by first-year guard Eric Savage gave the Jumbos the lead for good with 2:58 left in the second half.

The ending of the game was not without drama, however. The Jumbos, carrying a slim 82-81 lead, committed a 10-second violation to hand the ball back to the Vikings with 25 seconds left. In what could have been the team’s final defensive possession of the season, however, Savage stole the ball from Vikings junior guard, Rayshaw Matthews.

"The 10-second violation was tough," Palleschi said. "It's definitely not what we wanted. Eric [Savage] had a great play. He knocked the ball right out of [Matthews'] hands and got it to me."

Palleschi absorbed an intentional foul before hitting both free throws to seal up the game for the Jumbos.

Pace explained that despite the close nature of the game, the team remained confident.

“Throughout the whole game, [we were] just sticking together as a team,” he said. “[We were] just trusting that everybody on the team, no matter what the situation is, is going to make the right play.”

During the game, Faison paced all players with 30 points and 14 rebounds, 10 of which came on the offensive glass. The only other Viking to reach double digits, junior guard Shaquan Murray, posted 13 points (falling below his regular season average of 15.8 points per game).

Meanwhile, five Jumbos scored 11 points or more, led by Savage’s 14 points off the bench. Palleschi, in his first start since returning from an injury-enforced absence, put up 12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal in 22 minutes of action. Pace added 13 points and eight rebounds.

Another crucial part of Tufts’ success was its accuracy from the free throw line, as the team shot 19-for-21 from the stripe. The 90.5 percent accuracy rate was by far the Jumbos’ best mark for the season and far exceeded their season average of 66.9 percent. By comparison, Salem State made just 13 of their 25 attempts (52.0 percent) from the line.

According to Pace, the success from the stripe was crucial to the team’s first-round victory.

“It’s kind of unlike [what] we’ve been doing all year: We shot unbelievable from the free-throw line,” he said. “That helps you win [and] pull out close games like that.”