Being perfect isn't always easy. Just ask the women's basketball team.
Less than 24 hours after defeating Conn. College, 65-41 on Friday evening, the Jumbos encountered the biggest hurdle of their NESCAC schedule so far: a last-second 50-48 victory over the Wesleyan Cardinals on Saturday afternoon that kept their flawless 5-0 conference record intact.
With 31 seconds remaining and her team down 48-46, senior Valerie Krah had a chance to tie the game by hitting two free throws. The first one sailed through the hoop, but the second spun around and out, and into Wesleyan's hands.
All the Cardinals had to do was protect the ball and make their own free throws.
After a timeout, Wesleyan inbounded the ball near its half-court line to sophomore guard Nikki Maletta. The Jumbos swarmed, trapping her between the sideline and half-court line before creating a tie-up. The jump-ball favored Tufts.
The team had one more chance to win the game, and this time, Krah didn't disappoint.
Senior Taryn Miller-Stevens grabbed the ball with 19 seconds left, used a ball-screen at the top of the key, and hit Krah, who was coming off a double-screen set by juniors Jenna Gomez and Khalilah Ummah. Open on the left baseline for a deep three, Krah nailed the shot, giving her team a 50-48 lead with 7.6 seconds left on the clock.
Not only was it the game-winning basket, but the three was also the 126th of her career, tying her for the all-time Tufts three-point record.
"It was great for Valerie," coach Carla Berube said. "She's been a great shooter her whole career. She really stepped up to the challenge. It is a credit to both Val and her teammates for getting her the ball. It's a record for Val, but it's also a record for the program."
"It was great timing," Miller-Stevens said. "She missed the free throws that would have tied it, and in the huddle, I knew she really wanted the chance to score and get it back."
The shot also got rid of the sour taste from Tuesday's last-second loss to Wheaton. The Jumbos made sure they were on the winning end this time around.
"It was great to play like we know how to play," Miller-Stevens said. "We knew we wanted it, but it was just a matter of putting it all together. We had a will to succeed at the end. In past years, we've been frantic at the end of games. This was a great stepping stone for us."
Still, the squad did not look like itself at the beginning of the game. Wesleyan's ball pressure overwhelmed a Jumbo team that looked both frazzled and lethargic, committing 13 turnovers in the first frame, and only scoring 17 points.
Two quick fouls sent senior co-captain Laura Jasinski to the bench for the remaining 12:53 of the first half, which in turn, weakened Tufts' inside presence, a cornerstone of its offense this season.
But as has been the case most of the year, Berube's team looked like a different group in the second half, overwhelming the Cardinals, setting the tempo of the game, and preventing its opponent from scoring until the 15:11 mark.
"At halftime, we talked a lot about intensity," Krah said. "We needed to be ready to go from the start. We started hesitant, and we let them take out our offense. We decided that it shouldn't happen that way in the second half."
After turning in an 8-for-30 shooting performance in the first, the Jumbos outscored the Cardinals 33-26 in the second frame, and shot better than 40 percent from the floor.
"We came out a little flat again," Berube said. "Wesleyan came out strong and we were a little timid. At halftime I said, 'attack, don't back down, and don't play soft.' We really brought up the intensity in the second half."
That intensity was still not enough to hold Wesleyan down. Tufts took a 29-22 lead less than four minutes into the half, but the Cardinals responded with a vengeance, stringing together a 17-3 run to take a 41-35 lead with 6:14 to play.
The Jumbos ultimately mustered enough firepower to pull out the win and keep pace with Bowdoin at the top of the league standings. Ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Polar Bears are the only other NESCAC team with an unblemished conference record, at 6-0.
The Jumbos' record will certainly be tested again this season, as they have four more games on the regular season schedule - all against conference opponents.
"The past three years, we've struggled in the league," Miller-Stevens said. "It's great to be able to put it together against really competitive teams and show the league how good we are. We're just taking it one game at a time."
