It appeared that a different team showed up to Saturday's game against Bates than the one that soundly defeated Trinity and nearly overcame Amherst last weekend.
Just three days after the Tufts escaped with an 82-79 non-conference win over UMass Dartmouth, the Jumbos scored only 12 points in the first half on their way to a 72-44 loss to Bates, undoubtedly their worst performance of the year. The game was a stark contrast to Tufts' 91-76 home victory over the Bobcats last season.
The roller-coaster season continues for the Jumbos.
The Jumbos sank to 1-2 in conference play, and 9-6 overall. The Bobcats' victory was their first in-conference victory of the season.
"They came out hungry for revenge after last year, and they had their backs against the wall being 0-2 in league play," junior forward Jake Weitzen said. "They wanted it more than we did in that first half."
Paced by 18 first-half points from junior guard Bryan Wholey, who finished with a career high 28, Bates shot 51.7 percent and turned the ball over only four times in the first half en route to a 25-point halftime lead. On the other hand, Tufts coughed up the ball 12 times in the half, 20 in total, which contributed to Bates' 26-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
Neither the inside nor the outside games were clicking for the Jumbos. Bates outscored Tufts 30-18 in the paint, and coach Bob Sheldon's team sank just four of their 12 three-point attempts. The sole bright spot for the Jumbos offensively was the play of senior forward Jason Grauer, who scored 10 points - more than doubling his previous season total of eight - in just nine minutes of play.
Weitzen attributed the Jumbos' sluggish play to both the fatigue and the dubious health of the Tufts lineup.
"Everybody's a little banged up," Weitzen said. "Guys came through some injuries to play the Amherst/Trinity weekend and it's starting to catch up to us. Our energy just wasn't there today."
"To this point, for the talent that we have, we've been underachieving," said senior tri-captain Brian Fitzgerald, who was held scoreless in his 15 minutes of play. "There's just no excuse to come out flat for a conference game of this magnitude. Our offense feeds off of our defense, and today we were turning the ball over, letting them get out on fast breaks, and weren't getting back [on defense]. We absolutely have to be more focused at the defensive end."
On Thursday, the Jumbos rode the hot hand of junior guard Ryan O'Keefe to squeak out a victory over UMass Dartmouth. O'Keefe led all scorers in the game with 20 points, for his third-straight 20-plus point game, while shooting just over 50 percent from the floor. Weitzen pulled in a game-high 10 rebounds to go with his 15 points, and senior co-captain Dave Shepherd notched 12 points, five assists, and three steals.
Tufts played aggressive defense on the perimeter and pounded the ball inside on the offensive end. The guards harried the opposing Corsairs, accumulating ten steals, as Tufts held a 44-30 scoring advantage in paint. The Jumbos also out-rebounded UMass-Dartmouth 37-26 and scored 13 second-chance points to the Corsairs' three. Only balanced scoring and accurate three-point shooting from UMass Dartmouth kept the game close, as the team had five players in double figures and shot just south of 50 percent on threes.
Though the loss to Bates clouded Tufts' postseason picture, the playoffs are the least of the team's worries at this point.
"We haven't been thinking about that," Fitzgerald said. "We cannot be looking ahead to the playoffs. We can't look further than our next game."
Tufts' next game is a non-conference match-up with the 9-7 Wheaton Lyons. The game is the only home game for a Jumbo team that will face back-to-back conference weekends on the road over the next few weeks, starting this Friday with a trip to Connecticut College.
