Jumbos dominate Middlebury in NESCAC quarterfinals

The men's basketball team defeated the Middlebury Panthers this past Saturday afternoon 89-81 at Cousens gymnasium in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament. The third seeded Jumbos will now move on to the conference semi-finals to face the second seeded Williams Ephs, who defeated Bates 85-69, next Saturday afternoon at Amherst College.

"Today's game was a battle of two good teams," coach Bob Sheldon said. "In the end, however, because of the [non-conference] teams we've played this season and the toughness of our schedule, we were mentally tougher than they were. That's what it came down to."

Both teams came out looking sharp early. There were ten lead changes in the first four minutes of play alone. The two teams continued to trade baskets for the majority of the first half, with neither going up by more than six points at any one time. After trailing for the last eight minutes of the first half, senior co-captain Brian Shapiro drilled a three pointer with just one second left with a hand in his face from two feet behind the line to give Tufts a 41-39 lead going into intermission.

Whatever Sheldon told his team at halftime worked. The Jumbos came out with much more intensity in the second half, especially on the defensive end of the court. On the opening possession of the second twenty minutes, junior guard Deyvehn East sent a bullet over to sophomore center Craig Coupe who laid it in giving the Jumbos a four point lead.

Middlebury took the lead 43-44 with 17:05 left in the second half, but that was the last time the Panthers would find themselves on top. Tufts went on a 12-4 run over the next three minutes, including two three pointers by Shapiro that broke the game open.

The Panthers refused to give up, and cut the lead to five points with 11:53 remaining after a three-pointer by junior Nate Anderson. Sequential buckets by Wilson and freshman forward Blaine Lay put the Jumbos up by ten points once again, but Middlebury refused to go away, reducing the lead to seven with just nine minutes to go.

Tufts' next offensive possession proved to be the dagger in the heart for Middlebury. With 5:30 left, the Jumbos inbounded the ball coming out of a timeout. Middlebury's tight defense did not allow Tufts to get a good look, and East was forced to send up a prayer as the shot clock expired. The shot barely nicked the rim, and Coupe hauled in the rebound and brought down the house with a thunderous jam to give Tufts a ten-point lead.

"I think that Coupe's dunk was the turning point of the game," Shapiro said. "It got the fans going, it got our bench up, and it got the players that much more pumped."

Tufts maintained a double-digit lead for the next four minutes, but Middlebury refused to go away. With 1:08 left and the Jumbos up by 11, the Panthers hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to eight. They immediately fouled Wilson, who calmly sunk both free throws. They scored a quick two, and then fouled McGlynn, who went 1-2 from the line. After hitting a quick three pointer to cut the lead to six, the Panthers fouled Wilson again, who sank two more foul shots, putting Middlebury away for good.

The Jumbos out-rebounded Middlebury 50-37, and limited the usually lethal Panthers to just 23 percent shooting from behind the arc.

Tufts got solid contributions from all of its players. Coupe led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Shapiro poured in 17 and Stovell had a solid outing with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Wilson added thirteen and also went 7-8 from the foul line in the last minute to seal the deal for Tufts.

"We finally played today as a team, and we picked a good time to do it," Shapiro said. "It was nice to finally play together to our potential because we knew last weekend, we didn't play our best. It just feels good."