It appears the men's basketball team may have awoken a sleeping giant yesterday.
The previously winless Brandeis Judges dominated the Jumbos handily, winning 80-56 in Waltham, Mass. Brandeis, which had been ranked ninth in the national pre-season poll, had started the season a disappointing 0-3.
But yesterday the Judges looked like a team worthy of their preseason hype. With a balanced offense and a stifling defense, the Judges turned a close first-half game into a second-half blowout. Their key to success was a dominating effort in the paint on both sides of the floor.
"They played off of [junior] Tom Selby a lot and were able to double [junior co-captain] Jon [Pierce] well," Tufts assistant coach Sean Duke-Crocker said. "They did a good job of keeping out post players straight up. [Freshman] James Long struggled and Pierce struggled with double teams a lot, and Brandeis took some of their moves away."
The Jumbos had no answer for the Brandeis frontcourt attack, as Judge junior forward Terrell Hollins dominated inside with 19 points and 10 rebounds, and graduate student forward Steve DeLuca added 19 points, including three three-pointers and eight rebounds.
"Hollins had a really good day today; Selby played [him] tough, but Hollins just had a great day," senior co-captain guard Aaron Gallant said. "Tom's one of our better defenders, but Hollins was too big and too strong."
After trailing 45-35 at the half, the Jumbos stayed relatively even with Brandeis for the first nine minutes of the second period -- even cutting the lead to single digits -- 49-40, on a three-pointer by sophomore point guard Matt Galvin. But with 11 minutes left to play, the Judges went on a 12-0 run to extend their lead to an insurmountable 71-48. During the spurt, Brandeis hit its stride offensively, while the Jumbos struggled to find a rhythm throughout most of the second half.
"We missed a couple shots we usually make and at the same time we didn't have much of a flow," Gallant said. "We weren't getting the ball inside and not getting open looks and it sort of fell apart from there."
Tufts shot a meager 23 percent from the field in the second half and ended the game shooting a lowly 33 percent overall. The Jumbos' 21 second-half points were by far their lowest output in any half this season through four contests. Pierce and Gallant each tallied 13 points to lead the Jumbo scorers, while Galvin added 12 of his own for a career high. Pierce's fourth point was the 1,000th of his career, a milestone he has achieved at an incredible pace.
The first half featured a much more competitive ballgame, as Tufts jumped out to an early 7-1 lead behind two buckets from Galvin and a Gallant three-pointer. But Brandeis gradually took control of the game and managed a 15-14 lead that it did not relinquish.
Still, the Jumbos managed a productive night on the glass. Seven of their 16 rebounds in the first half were offensive, and they finished with 14 for the entire game.
"That's one of the things we've been stressing all year, making sure that we have four guys crashing the offensive glass; that's a big part of our game," Duke-Crocker said. "We just didn't put them back in and that's usually something that happens."
In the end, the Jumbos had no answer for Brandeis' dominance inside, as the Judges outscored Tufts 40-20 in the paint. Such high-percentage shots from the block accounted for the team's finishing at 53 percent shooting from the field.
"They were flashing from the weak side and getting good position and just making solid moves," Duke-Crocker said. "Terrell is a great player and he killed us. We didn't do a good enough job of denying the entry pass."
The Jumbos were also without the full services of junior guard Dave Beyel, who is suffering from a calf contusion and was limited to 13 scoreless minutes off the bench.
"He was not even close to 100 percent tonight," Duke-Crocker said. "Dave's usually good for 15 a game and I don't even think he scored tonight."
Beyel and the rest of the Tufts team have little time to recover as they host Lesley College tomorrow night in Cousens Gym; the Brandeis contest marked the first of five games across 10 days for the squad before winter break.
"It's an NBA schedule, as we like to call it," Duke-Crocker said. "We'll have short practices, but watch a lot of film and make sure everyone knows what they have to do."
During such a demanding stretch of games, Gallant said he knows the team cannot dwell on the mistakes they've made, but must instead learn from them and progress.
"We have to have a short memory and not look back," Gallant said. "We have to get going and move forward. There's nowhere to go but forward."
