It appears as though things are changing for the better for the men's basketball team.
After picking up two consecutive wins in the past week, the Jumbos look to this weekend to continue the streak against lowly NESCAC competitors Wesleyan and Conn. College. The team is confident that if it can continue to play the solid defense and efficient offense that got it a win at Wheaton on Tuesday, the Jumbos can go 2'minus;0 on the weekend and have a realistic shot to make the NESCAC Tournament, which they have not taken part in since 2006'minus;07.
The small turnaround began this past Saturday when Tufts defeated conference foe Bowdoin 58'minus;53 with a game'minus;winning three'minus;pointer from senior Dave Beyel in the final 30 seconds to tally its first NESCAC win. Coming off the high of the exciting finish, the team traveled to Wheaton, where it led for the entire 40 minutes and downed the Lyons 77'minus;67.
After taking a 28'minus;22 lead into halftime, the Jumbos' lead was threatened by a 12'minus;0 Wheaton run that bridged the intermission. Tufts, however, answered with a seven'minus;point run of its own for some breathing room early in the half.
Wheaton then took advantage of the more relaxed Tufts defense and chiseled away at the lead to tie the score at 40 points with 13 minutes left. Thanks to a three'minus;pointer from freshman guard Alex Goldfarb, though, the Lyons never got that close again, despite coming within one point on three occasions in the next three minutes.
'I think one of the biggest things that we've done recently that's been a change is that we went back to playing defense as a team,' Beyel said. 'We're guarding the five players as a unit rather than one'minus;on'minus;one, which is what we let happen in the beginning of the season, and points got away from us.'
The victory displayed not only the defensive strength that has eluded the Jumbos since early in the season, but big offensive performances from their go'minus;to shooters. Beyel finished the game with 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while freshman center Scott Anderson was behind him with 16 points and seven boards. Senior tri'minus;captain Jon Pierce was the third Tufts player in double digits with 15 points and seven rebounds, as well as three blocks.
'I think we started passing the ball a lot more, sharing it more,' said Anderson of the Jumbos' streak. 'We were getting a lot more touches on the ball 'hellip; a lot more people scored than just our one and two shooters. We started to play better team defense, talking a lot more and just playing better help defense. We were also able to break their press all game with all our ball'minus;handlers able to break it down.'
Heading into this weekend, the team must focus on consistency with its newly improved team defense. Though the Jumbos never gave up the lead on Tuesday, each big run by Tufts was followed by a lull. And with playoff contention on the line, there is no room for defensive breakdowns.
'I think energy and focus is what we can always improve on,' Beyel said. 'In both of our wins there were short spurts where we lost focus and threw the ball away a few times and got lazy on defense. I think those are two things we can continue to improve on - staying in the game 100 percent, mentally and physically.'
Tufts is also looking for more points underneath the basket and will try to keep pressuring its opponents beyond the arc. High'minus;percentage shots will be key in ensuring points on each possession this weekend as the Jumbos look to continue their recent increase in field goal percentage.
Right now, Wesleyan is 7'minus;11 overall and 0'minus;4 in conference play and sits in last place in the NESCAC. However, the Cardinals pose an offensive threat in freshman guard Shasha Brown, who is second in the NESCAC with 18.1 points per game coming into the matchup. Last year, Tufts earned its only conference win over Wesleyan in a 79'minus;78 battle.
On Saturday, Tufts will face Conn. College, which is tied for last place with Wesleyan. And while the Camels graduated two key contributors last season, returning sophomore Demetrius Porter and senior Shavar Bernier put up a combined 50 points on the Jumbos in an 86'minus;72 come'minus;from'minus;behind win last season.
As Tufts attempts to continue its recent string of success, it will try to incorporate some new offensive strategy to gain an edge in both weekend contests.
'We have two different new plays that work to spread out the court rather than being congested in front of the net,' Anderson said. 'Both plays end up with Jon [Pierce] posting up in a one'minus;on'minus;one, which makes it harder for their defense to double'minus;team him. Defensively, both Wesleyan and Conn. have small, quick guards, so we're looking to force them to put the ball on the floor and ultimately make bad decisions.'
With two more NESCAC wins this weekend, Tufts would more or less secure seventh place in the NESCAC and a playoff spot. But from here on out, the Jumbos are looking at each game as a must'minus;win, because any huge upsets in the next few weeks could potentially bump them out entirely.
'If we win two it would be really tough for either team to come back and get ahead of us in the NESCAC,' Beyel said. 'We can't say it would clinch a spot because if [eighth'minus;place] Bates, Wesleyan or Conn. come back and get hot and beat a team they aren't supposed to, it could knock us down. With these wins and the rest of the games going the way they should in the conference though, it would be a cinch but it's not a definite. These are must'minus;wins for us.'
