The Thanksgiving turkey tasted a little bit sweeter for the men's basketball team this year, as the Jumbos went into the break with a 77-61 win over the MIT Engineers last Tuesday, its first victory over the non-conference rivals since 2007.
Although MIT, which is looking for its sixth straight 20-win season, is not as formidable an opponent as it has been in past years, the Engineers have always been an Achilles' heel for the Jumbos.
"There is definitely an excitement when we play MIT," senior tri-captain KwameFirempong said. "And especially with the last three years, where we've come up short, and they've been ranked, it's easy to get hyped up for this game."
However, for the first time in a long time, Tufts came into the game as the favorite and played like it, continuing to show impressive depth and skill. Led by senior forward Tommy Folliard, who scored 15 points, four Jumbos scored in double figures.
In the first half, MIT got out to a quick 7-2 lead. However, Tufts, who had just come off a near loss to underdog Wentworth, did not allow itself to get down early.
"The only way we're good is when we are playing with high energy, and talking on defense," senior tri-captain guard Oliver Cohen said. "Those last two games, we had really low energy for whatever reason, and that wasn't going to get it done against a team like MIT. So we knew we had to somehow find the energy, and the passion against a good team like MIT, and I think we did a great job [of that]."
The Jumbos responded with seven straight points to take the lead, after which the game turned into a back-and-forth affair. Tufts' lead never grew past eight points.
"I think their size kept them in the game," Firempong said. "They got some second chance opportunities, and a couple of their guys got it going offensively. They hit a couple shots, and every time we stretched it out to about eight, they cut it back down to four and kept themselves in the game."
Tufts went into the second half with a slim 34-30 lead, and neither team was able to break away for much of the second half. After Tufts took a 61-53 lead with seven minutes to go, MIT went on a 7-0 run over the next three minutes to cut the Jumbos' lead to one with four minutes to play.
However, Tufts finally broke the game open, going on a 16-1 run to close out the game, led by Folliard, who scored all 10 of his second-half points in the final four minutes and began the run with back-to-back 3-pointers.
"They gave themselves a chance with about four minutes to go when they cut the lead to one," Firempong said. "But we were able to go on a run to end the game ... We just had the confidence in ourselves and in each other that we were going to be able to weather the storm."
Cohen credited the increased focus on offensive execution, as well as the continued explosion of Folliard offensively this season.
"We ran our offense well and executed, and sometimes this year we've had problems with executing our offense," Cohen said. "Our coaches have created a great offense for us, and when we run them crisply we get a lot more out of them. Maybe our confidence was a little higher which enabled us to execute our stuff better and get shots for guys like Tommy, who has been on fire this year."
The win moves Tufts to 5-1 on the year, but also provided a symbolic victory for the seniors on the team.
"As a senior, we've lost to them every year since I've been here," Cohen said. "They've been pretty successful the last couple years, and they've been beating up on us the past couple years, so it was definitely nice to get [the win]."
Tufts will continue its non-conference play tomorrow when it travels to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in search of the sixth win of the season.
