After dropping a heartbreaking 98-97 overtime loss to Plymouth State on Tuesday evening at Cousens Gym, the men's basketball team bounced back and ended the fall semester on a positive note by defeating the Suffolk Rams on the road on Wednesday evening 88-70. The two game split put the team at 5-4 on the season, after winning three straight road games last week.
"It was real big to win our last game before break," sophomore forward Brian Kumf said. "We have three weeks to think about our last game, and it leaves a good taste in our mouth to work hard over break and get ready for NESCAC competition."
Tufts' 18 point bashing of the Rams was its largest margin of victory this season, upping the team's road record to 5-1.
As usual, senior tri-captain Reggie Stovell was electric, shooting 8 of 12 from the field and leading the Jumbos on the night with 21 points and 10 rebounds, highs for both teams.
"Reggie's been huge this year, he's always been a great player and he's playing phenomenally this year," Kumf said. "He's the biggest reason for our success. He's an absolute animal inside, and its really great that we have someone we can go to inside all game, who can carry us on his back in terms of scoring and rebounding."
Freshman Ryan O'Keefe made the most of his playing time, dropping in 15 points on six of 10 from the field and three of four from three point range. Classmate Jake Weitzen and junior Dan Martin also did their part with 11 and 10 points respectively.
For the Rams, sophomore John Murphy led the team with 21 points off of seven shots from the field and four three pointers. Senior Chris Tighe had thirteen points and junior Josh Morelock had 12.
No player from Suffolk had more than six rebounds and it only had 28 as a team, while the Jumbos controlled the glass with 56 boards. This advantage proved decisive, since the comparison in second chance points was 25-10, nearly the margin of victory.
Another important statistic was the bench play. Tufts outscored Suffolk 41-18 in this category. In its two games this week, the Tufts bench has outperformed its rival, giving the starters a chance to rest, and helping the team.
"The guys coming off the bench like Jake and O'Keefe score a lot of points for us and really provide a big energy boost," Kumf said. "We've all been clicking lately and have been pretty tough to stop."
At the start, the Jumbos led by as many as seven points. Suffolk slowly ate away at the lead, and the two teams tied six times. Going into halftime, the score was knotted at forty. The Jumbos put the game away, however, with an 11-0 run in the midst of the half. With 11:31 to go, they led 63-50 and never looked back.
The lead was eventually cut to nine, but it did not matter. In the second half, the Jumbos shot 19 of 30, while the Rams shot 10 of 33. Tufts shot 53 percent from the field, compared to a paltry 36 percent from the home team.
The win provided some solace to a tough loss on Tuesday night to Plymouth State.
"It was real tough to lose to Plymouth State because we really worked our tails off the whole game," Kumf said. "They beat us by a lot last year and it was a really close game so it was a tough loss to take, but we took it in stride and won yesterday so we're happy about that."
Stovell and fellow senior tri-captain Drew Kaklamanos led the Jumbos in scoring with 17 and 16 points respectively. Kaklamanos was on fire from beyond the three point arc, with five of his six buckets coming from behind the stripe. He ended the night 6 of 13. Weitzen chipped in 16 on seven of 15 from the field.
The bench once again was a strong contributor, outdoing Plymouth by a margin of 39-17. This definitely helped keep the Jumbos in the game, while giving the starters rest.
Stovell led the team with eleven rebounds. Of those, eight were offensive. Martin and Kumf had ten apiece. The Jumbos tallied 48 rebounds, split evenly between offensive and defensive, to 41 for the Panthers.
The night belonged to Plymouth senior tri-captain Nick Pelotte, however. In a great display, the guard racked up 40 points on 12 field goals, including four threes, and 12 free throws. He was 12 of 21 from the field and 12 of 18 from the charity stripe. The Jumbos only attempted 18 free throws as a team.
Pelotte is averaging 23 points a game, and sophomore forward Andreas Pope is averaging 20 points per game. On Tuesday, he had 25.
The Jumbos led by nine at the half (57-48), but saw their lead slowly decrease for most of the second half. With 50 seconds left, the Panthers tied the game for the first time since the three minute mark of the first half.
With 30 seconds to go, sophomore guard David Shepard's layup gave the Jumbos a two point lead. But a free throw by Pelotte, and one by Pope with nine seconds left, tied the game and sent it into overtime.
"Shepard has been huge for us this year," Kumf said. "Last year, Eric Mack was very good defensively, but our offensive didn't have much flow. Dave really pushes it on offense, he's a stable force out there and a real leader. He runs team really well and we really need that."
Tufts took a three point lead on a lay-up by Martin, but that was the last basket Tufts would score for the next three minutes and four seconds. On a lay-up with half a minute left Pelotte gave Plymouth its first lead since 3:27 left in the first half, a lead it would not relinquish.
After a Shepard basket, Pelotte was fouled and made both free throws to extend the lead to four. Kaklamanos got the ball and sank the buzzer-beater from beyond half court, but it was too little too late as the Jumbos fell by a point.
The loss kept the Jumbos winless in three games at Cousens Gym this year. All of their wins have come on the road, which is stark contrast to last year, when all of their wins came at home. The team will need to up its play at Cousens Gym when the NESCAC season rolls around if it hopes to be competitive in the conference this year.
