Gut-check time came for the Tufts men's basketball team on Saturday with less than six minutes remaining against Bates at Cousens Gym. In desperate need of a win after dropping their first three NESCAC games, the Jumbos led the Bobcats by as many as 16 points with 13 minutes remaining. But that lead dwindled over a seven-minute span.
At the 5:44 mark, Bobcats junior guard Graham Safford hit a corner three to cap a 21-3 Bates run and give his team its first lead of the day, 49-47. The Jumbos appeared to be falling apart.
"They made a little adjustment, and maybe we didn't, and I think we panicked a little bit," head coach Bob Sheldon said. "We've had some games where that's happened, so there's a little bit of a history."
In the end, though, the Jumbos got what they needed. They made a few jump shots, got a few defensive stops and hit a few free throws to finish off the Bobcats, 59-55, in front of one of the rowdiest Cousens crowd of the year.
"It was almost an afterthought going into the season [that] we'll be in the NESCAC playoffs one way or another," senior tri-captain and point guard Oliver Cohen said. "But you look at 0-3 and you start to get a little nervous."
"[It was] as big as you can get," Sheldon said of Saturday's win. " [A] 100 percent must-win game."
The Bobcats, some of whom surely remember defeating the Jumbos, 57-54, in the NESCAC quarterfinals two years ago, would not go down without a fight. After scoring just 17 points and committing 11 turnovers in the first half, they did better to secure the ball in the second half and unnerved the Jumbos with full-court pressure. Gradually, they clawed their way back into the game.
Early on, the Jumbos made quick, smart passes to break the Bobcats' press, leading to open looks near the basket. However, Bates made adjustments down the stretch and began to trap Tufts in the backcourt. That's when things got dicey for the Jumbos.
"Their press got to us a little bit," Cohen said. "They were a good team, they did some good things. It was just a matter of time before they made some sort of run."
In the first half, Tufts surged to a 17-5 advantage by crashing the boards, forcing turnovers and pushing the ball on offense. Safford, the NESCAC's second-leading scorer at 20.3 points per game, was held scoreless. Only three Bobcats registered points. At halftime, the Jumbos led 27-17.
But Safford, helped by his team's relentless defensive effort, willed Bates back into the game. He scored 17 second-half points on 5-of-14 shooting, and the Bobcats forced seven turnovers.
Following Safford's 3-pointer to give Bates the lead, Sheldon called timeout. The Jumbos regrouped, returned to the floor and saved their season.
First, freshman Hunter Sabety made a layup to tie the game. Then, after Safford hit a free throw, senior forward Tommy Folliard knocked down a three - his first make since five minutes into the first half.
Safford responded with a 3-point play of his own to give Bates a 53-52 lead and sent Sabety to the bench with his fifth foul. But Folliard countered with a baseline jumper off an inbound pass at the two-minute mark.
"We ran some good plays, good screens," Folliard said. "I was wide open. I've got to make those shots."
On the Bobcats' next possession, Safford missed a layup. The Jumbos slowed the ball down and gave it to junior guard Ben Ferris late in the shot clock. Ferris leaned forward to take an awkward jumper, missed, grabbed his own rebound and tapped it in for a layup. Tufts led, 56-53, with 1:05 to play.
The Jumbos got another key stop on the Bobcats' next possession, and Cohen was fouled with 16 seconds left, but he missed both free throws. Needing a 3-pointer to tie, Safford found himself unguarded at the top of the key and his shot rimmed out.
Tufts sophomore guard Stephen Haladyna, who finished with a team-high 14 points, pulled down the rebound, was fouled and made one of two free throws to all but ice the victory.
"We bent a little bit there in the middle, when we were ahead by 16 and let them get ahead by two, but we didn't break," Sheldon said. "They stayed together, to their credit, as a team and got some big defensive stops."
Instead of sitting last in the NESCAC at 0-4, Tufts is now 1-3 and shares sixth place with Bates, Conn. College and Wesleyan. Tufts also holds the tiebreaker over Bates.
"We needed it for our guys, just to know that they can win and win a NESCAC game," Sheldon said. "We may win the rest."
"When you're in close games the next time, it's like, 'Hey, we did this before, let's just do it again,'" Cohen added.
Despite Safford's game-high 17 points - all in the second half - Tufts held Bates to its lowest point total of the season.
Sabety finished with 12 points and three blocks, while the Jumbos received crucial rebounding help from their guards: Ferris led Tufts with nine boards and Haladyna grabbed seven.
The Jumbos have seven regular season games remaining, including six against NESCAC opponents. Their next game is Friday at Conn. College.
