Women's Basketball | Tufts bows out of tournament in Final Four

NESCAC Champions. Liz Moynihan's shot. A Final Four berth. A season filled with highlights and accomplishments came to an end on Saturday, when the women's basketball team fell in the semi-finals of the NCAA Div. III Championship to eventual national champions FarleighDickinson-Florham University (FDU-Florham), 42-39.
Three of the Jumbos' last four games had come down to the wire with resulting victories, but the Jumbos finished just short against the Devils, despite keeping the score close for most of the game.
Tufts staged a comeback to derail FDU-Florham's attempt to pull away in the second half. The Devils held a 40-32 lead over the Jumbos with 8:30 remaining in the game after a basket from Devils sophomore forward Shalette Brown. Tufts' freshman forward Michela North, senior tri-captain forward Ali Rocchi and sophomore guard Emma Roberson all respond to close the margin to 40-38 with just over six minutes left on the clock.
For the remaining time, offense seemed to come to a standstill. Both teams totaled just three points for the remainder of the game -- shooting a collective 1-of-8 from the field. With a layup from FDU-Florham's Brown and a North free throw, the score was 42-39 with 23 seconds remaining.
FDU-Florham's junior forwards Brown and Kyra Dayon missed two free throws but secured each other's offensive rebounds following the misses, forcing the Jumbos to foul three times in as many seconds.
After a timeout taken with 17 seconds left in the game, Roberson stole an inbounds pass to give Tufts a final chance to take the game into overtime. The Jumbos came up the court and called a timeout with nine seconds left to set up their last attempt. But the shot was off the mark, and the Devils advanced to the championship game.
The would-be game tying shot was all too reminiscent of senior tri-captain guard Liz Moynihan's buzzer-beater against University of New England (UNE), which gave Tufts the win in the second round of the tournament.
"It stings," junior forward Hayley Kanner said. "It still hurts. You don't really want to think about what could have been. You don't want to think about however many plays before that, however many missed layups [or] missed foul shots [happened], because at the end of the day nothing's going to change. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't replay the moment."
The Jumbos held the Devils to just 1-of-17 from the field to start the game, but never managed to truly pull ahead. A 20-14 lead for Tufts with 2:38 left in the first half quickly disappeared, with FDU-Florham tying the score, 22-22, at the half.
"I think that we played incredible defense," Moynihan said. "We played a team that averages 81 points per game and we held them to just 42 points. At the same time, it's hard to win a game, any game, when you're scoring 39 points."
Both teams had sluggish scoring, with the Jumbos shooting 34.8 percent -- just 2-of-14 from distance -- and the Devils shooting just 27.6 percent on the night.
The Devils outrebounded the Jumbos 40-33 overall, tallying 19 offensive rebounds to the Jumbos' eight, and notched 58 shot attempts to the Jumbos 46.
"The Devils are a very athletic team, and they did a great job of getting their hands in the passing lanes," Moynihan said. "It was tough to even get open and they did a great job of pressuring us."
The Jumbos were also undone by their turnovers -- 19 total -- which led to 18 points for the Devils.
Dayon carried most of the offensive load for the Devils, scoring 17 of their 42 points on 8-of-18 shooting as the game's top scorer. North led the Jumbos with 13 points off the bench, going 5-of-7 for the night. Tufts' bench outscored FDU-Florham's bench 23-6.
Friday night also saw the return of one of the Tufts' top scorers this season, junior guard Hannah Foley, who had injured her ankle against UNE and had missed the last two games.
"Most of us felt like we should have won that game [against FDU-Florham], and that was the toughest part," Moynihan said. "There was a little bit of frustration, but that [frustration] decreased as the night went on, especially because we were celebrating [the birthdays of] Pat Cordeiro, our athletic trainer, and Shannon Curley, our Team Impact player."
The Jumbos played for third place in a consolation match the next day against last year's NCAA Div. III runners-up, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, losing to the Warhawks 72-54.
"It's the ultimate show of pride and character to play in the consolation match," Kanner said. "Both teams just lost their opportunity to win a national championship and you have to turn right around and play a game the next day. It's a testimony to the coaching staff and the captains, who sat us down and told us it's an honor to even be here."
For the second straight night, North led the Jumbos with 14 points. She was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and added six rebounds and three assists. Rocchi contributed eight points and six rebounds for the Jumbos.
"There were three seniors on this team -- tri-captains Moynihan, Rocchi and Caitlin McClure -- and this was going to be our last game ever," Moynihan said. "The game [against Wisconsin-Whitewater] was also a very tough game and things didn't seem to be going our way. But, we rallied together as a team, which is very easy to do when you're playing on a team with your best friends."
The bittersweet end to a whirlwind season didn't detract from what the team achieved this season, according to Kanner.
"Two losses mean nothing to this team," Kanner said. "The countless experiences and memories are enough to last a lifetime, let alone make up for this end to a season. I think [making it to the semi-finals] has made us even hungrier. These past two games there might have been a little jitters being on the 'big stage' but coming back next year we now know that we can compete with these [top] teams."