Championship Bound: Jumbos bring home win in semifinals, advance to historic NCAA title game

Things were uncharacteristically up in the air at the beginning of the 2015-2016 season for the Tufts women's basketball team, which had won back-to-back NESCAC championships and made consecutive Final Four appearances. A loss by 18 points to conference foe Bowdoin just four games into the season, followed by another loss at Conn. College three games later, had Tufts reeling in December. There were shifting lineups and position changes as the Jumbos looked to fill the holes left by the powerhouse trio of graduated seniors, Hayley Kanner (LA '15), Kelsey Morehead (LA '15) and Hannah Foley (E '15), that included two 1,000-point scorers. These were uncommon occurrences because the top-tier program has established itself over the course of coach Carla Berube's 14-year tenure at Tufts.

Who would have known that this would be the year? Not only have the Jumbos lived up to the expectations, but they've now exceeded every prior season in terms of performance on the national level. In its third straight appearance in the NCAA Div. III semifinals, Tufts had a break through, advancing to the championship game for the first time in program history.

"It means so much," sophomore point guard Lauren Dillon said. "I know it's been a long time coming, especially for our seniors. They've tasted the Final Four, they've tasted what it felt like, and now to finally be here it means so much. I'm just happy for my teammates to be able to experience this. For my coach to be able to get back to a place that she knows pretty well, it means a lot."

Though it is Coach Berube's first time leading a Tufts squad to the national title game, her years at the Div. I level playing for the University of Connecticut (UConn) gave her plenty of exposure to the national spotlight.She was a member of the program's first championship winning team in 1995. Since then, UConn has won an additional nine championships, including three consecutively since 2013.

The real story, however, is how fitting it is that Tufts advances to this particular Div. III national championship, the 35th anniversary of the NCAA women's basketball championships. This anniversary will be marked by a commemoration in which the championship games for Div. I, II and III will all be decided at the same location with a 48-hour time span, with Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis playing host to all of the title games.

Not only will Tufts get the experience of playing with and being surrounded by the NCAA's best talent, but a red-hot UConn team — which recently won a Sweet 16 matchup by a record 60 points against Mississippi State — is the favorite to return to a fourth consecutive championship game. The stage is set for Coach Berube and her former head coach, Geno Auriemma, to meet up in Indianapolis while the Jumbos and Huskies play for the Div. III and Div. I titles, respectively.

To get this far, Tufts had to overcome Cinderella-story Final Four participantWartburg College out of Iowa. Similar to the team’s contest against Scranton University in the Elite 8, Tufts jumped out with an advantage, pacing the game throughout the first half but finding things difficult down the stretch with a strong effort from its opponent. In both instances, the Jumbos regrouped and put the game out of reach.

The Jumbos had arguably their best defensive start of any game all season against the Wartburg Knights — who were playing in their first-ever NCAA tournament — on March 19. For the first 12 minutes of the game, more than a quarter of play, Wartburg was scoreless. Dillon credits this to the team underestimating Wartburg, whose underdog status in no way detracted from its strong offensive presence, putting pressure on the team's guards and preventing the ball from entering the post.

While the Jumbos themselves started with just nine points in the first period, the early command they held on the defensive end of the court set the tone for the rest of the game.

“Tufts is always about defense, so we definitely came into the game very prepared for that, and it was kind of amazing that we could hold them off because they are a great scoring team,” Melissa Baptista, a sophomore, said. “I mean, that’s like our main goal, and it was pretty awesome that we could execute that way. And that kind of transcends for the rest of the game because you start with that momentum, and you want to continue on with that.”

Despite the 0-for-11 start coupled with six turnovers for Wartburg, the Knights fought back in the second period. Tufts kept its distance with big buckets from senior Maura Folliard and Dillon with about five minutes to play before the end of the first half, but Wartburg scored eight of the quarter’s final 10 points to cut the score to 28-15. Dillon and Baptista led the Jumbos in the first half with 10 and eight points, respectively.

Slowly, Wartburg chipped away at the Tufts lead. Baptista drained two shots from beyond the arc that kept the Jumbos up by 14 with five minutes to play in the third quarter, but by the start of the fourth quarter the lead diminished to nine. Wartburg senior Kailey Kladivo’s 3-pointer near the end of the third quarter marked the change in momentum that would push the Knights within just four points of the Jumbos in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a long game, and we knew that we weren’t going to hold them scoreless for all four quarters,” Dillon said. “We knew at some point they were going to start hitting their shots, and I think our energy was different. When we were at our highest energy, they weren’t scoring points. And I think fouls happen, energy dips, and at those times it was when they scored their points. And they’re a really good offensive team. They do put up a lot of points, so it was bound to happen at sometime.”

Wartburg baskets from sophomore Morgan Neuendorf, sophomore Aryn Jones and Kladivo put the Knights within two possessions of the Jumbos with just 4:49 to play in regulation. As the Jumbos have done all season, however, the team refocused, locked down their defense and hit the big shots they needed to pull out a win.

“I think having that Scranton game and a lot of games through this entire season where we’ve been up and then teams have crawled back kind of, we have experience with just staying composed and taking it one possession at a time and trying to get a stop and then a score, and then a stop and then a score after that,” Dillon said.

And score the Jumbos did. Dillon hit a huge 3-pointer following a timeout call from Coach Berube, and junior Michela North scored back-to-back layups on the ensuing possessions to all but close the game for the Jumbos, who stretched their lead back out to 11. Strong free throw shooting from Tufts sealed the deal as the program took home its first ever Final Four win, 63-50.The Final Four win was Berube’s 300th at the helm of the Tufts program.

While it was Dillon who led the Jumbos this time around, playing all 40 minutes and scoring a game-high 19 points, the Jumbos have proven they are a talented team all the way down the bench. Baptista added 14 points and 12 rebounds, and North also double-doubled with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

North has also collected a slew of postseason awards. Most notably, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named her one of 10 Div. III All-Americans. As the leading scorer, averaging over 14 points a game, she also picked up D3hoops.com’s Northeast Region Player of the Year honors and was NESCAC Co-Player of the year. In a video from the Tufts athletics department, Coach Berube credits this recognition to North's natural talent, her ability to step up as a leader and her consistent work ethic.

Though the championship game is still a week away, set to be played on Monday, April 4 at 6 p.m., there are ample preparations the team can make. Team members will now heal, get some rest and continue to plan for the game against the defending national champion Thomas More College, led by reigning Div. III Player of the Year senior Sydney Moss. The Thomas More Saints are a perfect 32-0 on the season, but the Jumbos, rooted in their strong defensive mindset, will work to stifle Moss and a Thomas More offense that averages somewhere around 90 points a game.

Tufts also got to watch NESCAC rival Amherst — whom Tufts beat by one point during the regular season and lost to by one point in the NESCAC championship — play Thomas More in the other Final Four game, which gave them material from which to learn and strategize.

"We always have a good game against Amherst, and their game against Thomas More was pretty close throughout the whole game, and then Thomas More kind of got the lead toward the end, so it shows that we definitely have a great chance of winning or giving [Thomas More] a great game," Baptista said. "Also, we could see what Amherst was doing well and what they were doing poorly at. Thomas More definitely got a lot of offensive rebounds and a lot of second-chance opportunities that allowed [it] to be an offensive threat."

With focused preparation, Tufts is working to make the most of the special opportunity they have earned to compete for a Div. III national championship during the NCAA's landmark weekend celebrating women's basketball across all three divisions.

"It's pretty exciting. It also shows that the past three years coach has built up a program where Tufts women's basketball was pretty successful," Baptista said. "It's pretty awesome that we can finally be in the national game, so hopefully we can win it. Pretty amazing spot just to be here, in this position."