The MIT men's basketball team kicked off its post-Thanksgiving schedule with three straight road wins and returned home Saturday looking to improve to 5-2 against a Tufts squad that had yet to win consecutive games this season.
Fifty-five minutes later, the Engineers had finished the longest game in their program's 106-year history and fell just short.
In a game that had 11 ties, the Jumbos prevailed in triple overtime by outscoring the Engineers, 12-5, in the third extra session, sealing an 88-81 win to improve to 4-2.
As they have often done this season, the Jumbos used the depth of their bench, putting 12 different players on the floor compared to just eight for MIT. The fresh legs allowed Tufts' reenergized offense to recover from a sluggish beginning to surge ahead in the final overtime.
"I think we came out a little flat to start off," assistant coach Chris Harvey said. "MIT's a very good team, but they wanted to play a more slowed-down, controlled type of game, and we were trying to establish tempo the entire game. It took us a good 37 minutes to get that going, but good teams win games like this."
For most of those first 37 minutes, it was all Engineer basketball. While the score stood at an even 28-28 at halftime, MIT started to pull away in the second half. The Engineers took a double-digit lead, pulling ahead, 57-47, on a jumper by senior tri-captain Alex Krull with 8:53 left in regulation. The Jumbos remained resilient, refusing to let the Engineers' lead affect them mentally.
"It gives us more of a sense of urgency, but I don't know how much it affects us," junior guard Ryan O'Keefe said of the Engineers' lead. "It makes us play harder, but you always want to play hard. There's no reason to completely change the way you play just because you're down."
The Jumbos successfully stepped it up in the final minutes of regulation, and it showed on the court, as Tufts secured several key MIT turnovers and forced the Engineers into some poor shot selection.
"We always seem to play a lot better on defense when we're losing," junior forward Jake Weitzen said. "And a lot of times, our defense energizes us on offense, and obviously the other way around also. Our tough defensive rebounding got us going on offense; it allowed us to run."
Tufts came roaring back, and with 2:58 left, Weitzen, who finished with a game-high 21 points, drained a three to even the score at 61-61. The Jumbos' fast-breaking offense put them back in the game, as they consistently outran the Engineers in the late minutes.
"Our style of play is up and down the court," Weitzen said. "MIT likes to bring the ball up slow; they try to be more methodical on offense. We knew that once we extended the game, they weren't going to keep running with us. In the end, they started missing a few shots, and we hit a few. I guess we outlasted them a little bit."
The Engineers managed to stay alive in regulation, despite the drastic momentum shift in the Jumbos' favor. Krull hit a jumper to give MIT a narrow two-point lead, but Tufts senior tri-captain Brian Kumf offset it with a layup in the final minute. Tufts had the final possession in regulation, but some sloppy ball-handling in the paint led to a steal by MIT freshman forward Erich Bracht.
The Jumbos had a chance to seal the deal in the first overtime, as senior tri-captain Dave Shepherd gave them a 70-65 lead with a pair of free throws with 1:35 left. But Krull, who would finish with 21 points in the losing effort, made two of his own from the charity stripe, and sophomore tri-captain Bradley Gampel made a three to tie the game. Shepherd missed a jumper in the final seconds, and the game went to double OT.
The second extra session remained close, as no team led by more than three points during the period. O'Keefe made a three with 56 seconds left to give the Jumbos a 76-74 lead, but Krull hit two free throws to even the score. The Engineers would finish the game a stellar 22 for 23 from the line; Krull hit eight of his nine chances, while sophomore tri-captain Jimmy Bartolotta, who would also finish with 21 points, was a perfect 10-for-10.
The third overtime, however, belonged to the Jumbos. An O'Keefe three opened the floodgates, and the Jumbos took the lead for good. The junior sharpshooter was the go-to man in the third OT, hitting four free throws to finish with 21 points, and the Jumbos walked away with the 88-81 win.
In the end, the Jumbos' defense may have been the deciding factor. The Engineers missed six straight field goal attempts to open the final period and finished the game shooting 35 percent from the floor.
"We're really working on our perimeter defense - putting pressure on the ball, denying the wings, and making teams start their offense further away from the basket," Harvey said. "Inside, we've been doing a good job of not giving them easy post position. And the big thing we've talked about is contesting shots."
"I think the key was a lot of ball pressure," O'Keefe added. "And we paid attention to the details - ball denial, boxing out and things like that."
The Jumbos' comeback win was made even more impressive in the late absence of their star forward Kumf. Kumf fouled out early in the first overtime, and the Jumbos were forced to delve into their bench to replace the senior who left with five points and five rebounds.
"Any time you lose a senior leader like that, it can become a factor," Harvey said. "But we were able to go in with a rotation of Jake and Fitzy, who picked up the slack for him. Everybody was pitching in and doing their job, and we were able to get the win.
"The great thing about this team is that we have good leadership," he continued. "Everybody, from the staff, all the way down to the guy who doesn't play, thought we were going to come back and win this game. We didn't get rattled. We just told ourselves to get good possessions on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, and we were able to do that."
