Two days after suffering its first loss of the season, the women's basketball team may have gotten back on track, but one thing remains clear: There is still quite a bit of room for improvement.
Leading by 13 with 8:15 to play in its clash against non-conference foe Salem State Tuesday night, national No. 20 Tufts had to hold on for dear life down the stretch, eventually squeaking by with a 66-62 victory over the Lady Vikings to improve to 4-1 on the season.
"We're not happy or satisfied with the way we played," coach Carla Berube said. "I thought that after we came away from the Brandeis game [Sunday] not playing our best by any means, we'd come back with a hunger and have a better outing on both ends, offensively and defensively, and it just wasn't there. The focus wasn't there, and it certainly wasn't our best. I've seen a lot better from us in weeks past than I did [Tuesday]."
For the second consecutive game, the Jumbos' defensive play allowed an unranked opponent to give them all they could handle. On the heels of Sunday's 81-76 setback to Brandeis -- in which Tufts yielded more than 80 points in a game for the first time since Jan. 4, 2005 -- the Jumbos coughed up a double-digit halftime lead and nearly allowed the Lady Vikings to mount a comeback in the waning minutes of the contest.
"What we discussed after losing to Brandeis was that we wanted to make the next team we had to play wish they hadn't seen us after a loss," junior guard Vanessa Miller said. "We wanted to come out and really make a statement with the game, and in that sense, we as a team were very disappointed, especially with the energy and the execution that we brought into the game."
Since holding its first two opponents of the season to a combined 90 points, Tufts has given up an average of 70 points per game in its last three contests. For a squad that ended last season as statistically one of the top 15 defenses in the nation, the poor play on the defensive end is, needless to say, disconcerting.
"It's not quite clicking with us yet," Berube said. "Me being a defensive-minded coach, it's something that we need to get better at; Toward the end of last year, it was right on -- we were contesting every single shot. It was very hard for our opponents to get a good shot off, and we have to find that again. We have the talent and the personnel to do that; we just have to work on it and show some pride on the defensive end."
"I think we've kind of lost tabs on who we are as a basketball team over these last two games," Miller said. "We've gotten away from some things that, in the past, we've considered to be our strongest suit, and that's our defense. Giving up 81 points to Brandeis, giving up 62 points to Salem State, we just haven't proven ourselves as a defensive team."
Behind a second-half charge in which they outscored the Jumbos 35-27, the Lady Vikings managed to turn what appeared to be a runaway Tufts win into a tight contest. Salem State needed just the first 5:05 of the second half to turn a 12-point halftime deficit into a 41-41 deadlock, culminating in a game-tying three-pointer from Salem State junior forward Katie Bielonko.
But the Lady Vikings never claimed the lead, as the Jumbos responded with a 17-4 run that put the game out of reach. Eight points during that stretch came from sophomore guard Lindsay Weiner, who played 22 minutes off the bench while senior co-captain Kim Moynihan nursed a sore Achilles. Weiner finished with a career-high 10 points, all of which came the second half.
"We have 17 people on our roster, and we go very deep, and the nice thing about that is that on any given day, anyone can step up and do what needs to be done," Miller said. "Lindsay so far has done a great job. She saved us [on Tuesday]."
The Lady Vikings did not go quietly, however, taking advantage of an anemic Tufts assault that left the door open for them to climb back again. While the Jumbos managed just three field goals over the final 8:15, Salem State mounted a spirited comeback, led by its honorable-mention preseason All-American, Danielle Jenkins. The junior center completed a conventional three-point play at the 1:18 mark to bring her team within two, on a night in which she tallied a game-high 28 points. But a pair of clutch buckets in the final minute by Tufts freshman forward Rachel Figaro iced the victory for the Jumbos.
"Give credit to Salem State: They came out in the second half and took it to us," Berube said. "Their All-American played a great game, and some of their role players did as well. They got in a 2-3 zone, and we forgot how to pass to each other, we forgot how to attack, and they got back into the game. Down the stretch, we finally got composed and made plays when we needed to; but overall, I don't think any of us are too pleased with the effort, with the focus, with the things we talk about on a day to day basis; To be a great team, this can't happen."
Sophomore point guard Colleen Hart paced Tufts with 19 points, 12 of which came during a first half in which the Jumbos led by as many as 14. Figaro, meanwhile, had a productive 21 minutes off the bench, tallying six points and seven rebounds.
Tufts will play one more game -- a Saturday afternoon tilt against non-conference foe Colby-Sawyer in Cousens Gym -- before taking a three-week layoff for final exams and the holidays. The contest will mark the Jumbos' fourth matchup against a team that appeared in the NCAA Tournament last year. While its subpar play and challenging early-season schedule have made for a bumpy first semester, Tufts is eager to enter the break on a positive note.
"I think we all recognize that we're considered a pretty good basketball team and that we're expected to win a lot of the games we play, so just going in and getting a win against Colby-Sawyer is not going to be sufficient for us," Miller said. "We want to go into winter break being confident in the kind of team we are, knowing that we have the intensity to play with the best and that we can go through rough patches and bounce back from them. We want to bounce back in a convincing way."
