After suffering a seven-game losing streak that considerably deflated the sails of the women's basketball team, Tufts is back on track with two consecutive wins. Battling out a nail-biter against non-conference Keene State on Tuesday to pick up their second straight victory, 59-57, the Jumbos moved to 10-8 and seem to have regained their direction.
The Jumbos entered the game fired up from their recent victory over Connecticut College and eager to make it two in a row.
"We knew going into [the Keene State game] that we had to get a win," sophomore Taryn Miller-Stevens said. "We were coming off of the Conn. College win and were pumped to keep our momentum going."
Tufts maintained a small lead for most of the first half, but never by more than six, and at halftime the margin stood at only two. Keene State stole the lead midway through the second half on the strength of an 8-2 run and with the Owls holding a 44-37 advantage, the Jumbos seemed to be on the verge of imploding.
This time, however, Tufts responded, fighting back and regaining a 57-54 lead with 47 seconds to play on a basket by sophomore Valerie Krah.
The Owls challenged once again when they cut the lead to one with a three pointer, but a free throw by Miller-Stevens sealed the two-point victory for the Jumbos.
Tufts, playing without starting point guard junior Julia Verplank for the ninth straight game, protected the ball well in its top ball-handler's absence, committing only seven turnovers in the second half, even as the Owls turned up the defensive heat.
"[Keene State] pressed us quite a bit," coach Carla Berube said. "They played some run and jump, and then they went to some zone in the second half. We didn't turn the ball over as much; we did a better job taking care of it in the second half."
Berube was happy with the team's performance in the close game. The two-point margin of victory constituted their smallest of the season, and only their third in single digits as the Jumbos rolled over teams by impressive margins in the first half of the season.
"The last couple of weeks we had some close games that didn't go our way, so this feels good," Berube said. "We made some big shots down the stretch and had some big offensive rebounds."
The Jumbos dominated the boards the entire game, finishing with 17 offensive rebounds.
"At halftime we talked about how we could crash the boards on them," Berube said. "They weren't doing a great job boxing us out. [Sophomore] Laura Jasinski did a really good job. She got a huge rebound near the end of the game."
Tufts displayed good balance offensively, with three players scoring in double figures. Miller-Stevens led the team all across the board with 13 points, five rebounds, and four assists. The sophomore guard, who began the season as a valuable bench player for the Jumbos, has stepped up into the starting spot and point guard position in Verplank's absence.
"[The Keene St.] game was a team effort," Miller-Stevens said. "Overall we were very balanced, we worked well as a team, and we need to see more of that in the future."
The Jumbos would certainly like to see more of it tonight, when they host MIT in another non-conference game.
"We're lucky that we have good opponents right down the road," Berube said. "It changes it up, and we need to fill up our schedule. We always want to put a non-conference game during the week in between the NESCAC weekends."
In MIT, Tufts faces a team that likes to keep the score low. The Engineers defend well, holding opponents to just 40-percent shooting on the season and their offense has been shaky, shooting just 30-percent from the floor. The Jumbos, who, despite a few low-scoring games during their recent losing streak, have generally put up high numbers, breaking the 70-point mark six times this season.
"I hope we can turn [the tempo] up," Berube said. "They like to play zone and slow the game down, but we're going to get up and down the court. We want to force turnovers and get easy baskets."
The Jumbos would like to keep their recent momentum going as long as possible, as they try to recover from the seven-game slide that has put them near the bottom of the NESCAC rankings as they approach the final push to the postseason.
