The Tufts women played two games this weekend, but suffered three losses. The Jumbos lost to the top two teams in the NESCAC (Colby and Bowdoin), but sophomore guard Hillary Dunn missed both games with back troubles, and could be out for next weekend's key NESCAC games against Williams and Middlebury.
Dunn is second on the team with 3.3 assists per game, fourth on the team with 27.4 minutes per game, and is the team's leading three-point shooter (37.5 percent). Tufts could have used some help this past weekend in the last area, as the Jumbos fired up 34 three pointers over the two games, but hit only nine.
Both the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Colby White Mules beat Tufts by double digit margins. The Polar Bears stretched a 27-20 halftime lead into a 57-41 margin, and the Mules upped their 39-31 halftime lead by three to win 70-59.
In the first half of Saturday's game, Tufts did nail two of four three point attempts, and for a while the Jumbos had Bowdoin on the ropes. Harrington hit a three pointer with 2:55 remaining in the first half to give the Jumbos a 20-16 lead. Unfortunately for Tufts, those were the last points the team would score for the next 6:57, as the Polar Bears reeled of 21 straight points, a period of depredation that spanned the first and second halves, and the Polar Bears lead by 17 just four minutes into the second half.
"At the beginning of the second half, we were dead on our feet," sophomore Emily Goodman said. "It would have been a different game."
A major factor in this was improved shooting by the Polar Bears. Bowdoin shot 27.6 percent from the floor in the first half, but shot 40.9 percent in the second. Meanwhile, the Jumbos suffered a reversal of fortune similar in scale, except that the Jumbo shooting percentage plummeted, from a decent 34.8 percent in the first half to a stone-cold 26.9 percent in the second.
From there, it was more bad news for Tufts, as Bowdoin went ahead by 23 with 7:24 remaining. The Jumbos did cut the lead to 14 four minutes and 17 seconds later, but by that point Bowdoin was well on its way to the 18-point victory.
"They were really solid," Goodman said. "They hardly made any mistakes, but we didn't play well. We couldn't get the offense going and we didn't play solid defense."
Harrington led all scorers with 13 points, followed closely by Jessie Mayol and Lora Trenkle of Bowdoin with 11 each. Goodman chipped in ten of her own and added 11 rebounds.
One difference in this game was free throws - Bowdoin couldn't miss them, and Tufts didn't take them. The Jumbos did shoot 72.7 percent from the line, but only took 11 shots for eight points, while Bowdoin tossed in 20-22 free throws for an impressive 90.9 free throw percentage.
The day before, Tufts was up north in Waterville taking on the second place team in the NESCAC, the Colby White Mules, and the result was similar although the game was closer. Tufts was in foul trouble early when senior Shira Fishman and Goodman each picked up two quick fouls, but the game remained tight through the first half. A Mule three-pointer at the end of the first half pushed the lead to seven, and in the second half, Colby slowly pulled away.
"We played really intense and focused," freshman Kate Gluckman said. "They had some really good three-point shooters and they stuck it when it counted."
It was the Mules' sixth straight win over the Jumbos, and it improved their record to 15-4 overall (5-0 in conference) while the Jumbos dropped to 10-7 overall and a potentially critical 1-4 in the NESCAC.
While the two losses have left the Jumbos reeling, there may be a bit of hope on the horizon. Tufts has already played the top four teams in the conference (Bowdoin, Colby, Amherst, and Bates) and their remaining four games are all at Cousens, where the Jumbos are 5-2 this season.
"We're really looking forward to the home games," Goodman said. "We really need to win and we are prepared to do what it takes."
The stretch run begins next Friday night at 7 p.m. against the Williams Ephs, with Middlebury the next night. The following weekend, Wesleyan (2-3 in the NESCAC) and Connecticut College (0-5 in the NESCAC) will visit the Jumbos.
