The Jumbos came out in the first quarter of the NCAA Div. III National Championship and executed exactly as they needed to. They kept Thomas More's three-time Div. III Player of the Year and NCAA Tournament MVP senior Sydney Moss from getting hot, they worked the ball inside and out, knocking down jump shots and layups alike, and by the end of the first 10 minutes, Tufts held a 17-11 lead. It was an ideal start, and three more quarters of that type of refined play could have seen the Jumbos hoisting the championship trophy in Indianapolis.
In the end, though, Thomas More went on one too many runs, and the Jumbos struggled with foul trouble as early as the second quarter. Unable to recapture their momentum from the opening 10 minutes, the Jumbos fell to the Saints, 63-51, giving Thomas More its second undefeated national championship season in a row. It's just the second time in Div. III history that a team has had back-to-back undefeated national title seasons. They finish off the last two seasons with a 66-0 overall record.
"I think my team battled, you know, we didn't give up, made it a game in the fourth quarter by making plays and just playing tough basketball the way we have all season," coach Carla Berube said. "And then down the stretch, Thomas More made the big plays. They've got big-time players and I think it was some of their so-called non-stars that shined."
While Moss has been the star for the Saints all season, Tufts actually played her exactly as the team wanted. The Jumbos kept Moss under her 22.4 points per game average at just 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Instead, it was sophomore point guard Abby Owings, recently named a D3hoops.com fourth team All-American, who filled the offensive gap, finishing with 17 points. The Saints had four scorers in double digits — Owings, Moss, sophomore Nikki Kiernan and first-year Madison Temple — while Tufts had just one, North, who finished with 10.
Despite the roaring crowd filled with mostly Thomas More fans who made the two-hour trip from Kentucky to Indiana, Tufts was composed and in charge until halfway through the second quarter. While Tufts normally looks to work the ball through North and sophomore Melissa Baptista down low, it was the guards who took the scoring initiative. Early outside shots from junior tri-captain Josie Lee, sophomore Lauren Dillon, senior tri-captain Emma Roberson and senior Michelle Wu — who had eight points for the team off the bench — propelled the Jumbos at first.They shot an outstanding 53 percent from the floor.
On the other end of the court, Tufts' defense created trouble on all fronts. Thomas More hit just 3-of-15 shots from the field — only 20 percent — and Tufts forced frequent turnovers and a decisive shot clock violation right at the end of the first quarter.
Coach Carla Berube looks to referee for foul call explanation during the NCAA Div. III championship game.Soon though, Thomas More found its stride. Kiernan was productive scoring down low for the Saints, while Moss' jump shot heated up. The senior hit a 3-pointer at the 6:42 mark in the second quarter that gave the Saints a 19-18 lead. The Jumbos, on the other hand, were held scoreless for almost four minutes.
"We came out with a lot of energy in the first quarter," junior All-American Michela North said. "I think we had a 17 to 11 lead. We would've liked to push that, but they kind of crawled their way back, kept scoring. We couldn't really get a stop for a while. They just go on runs; they're an emotional team and they had a huge fan base here cheering them on, and that's what they play off of. I think we needed to come out with that energy every quarter, but it didn't really seem like we did."
Part of what influenced Tufts' scoring drought was foul trouble. Back-to-back questionable offensive foul calls from the referees on North and Baptista frustrated the Jumbos and led to substitutions. This broke up the starting five's chemistry and forced personnel changes early for the Jumbos. The effects of the early foul calls would be felt throughout the remainder of the game. Baptista played just 16 of 40 minutes, while Lee also lost minutes due to foul trouble. Both players, along with Dillon, fouled out in the fourth quarter.
During the stretch at the end of the first half, Thomas More expanded its lead to as many as eight, led by Owings' 3-point shooting and ability to get to the hoop. Five points in a row from Tufts junior Katy Hicks, however, kept the Thomas More lead to just six going into halftime.
Hicks' contributions were just one of the many examples in this game of Tufts' depth. As the Jumbos have done all season, when the chips are down, other players stepped up to keep the Jumbos in the game. Wu, first off the bench to sub in for guards, tallied eight points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, while senior Maura Folliard had a stretch in the third and fourth quarter where she hit back-to-back baskets, including one 3-pointer, that kept Tufts right in the game. She scored nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Another thing the Jumbos can pride themselves on is holding the Saints almost 30 points below their season average for points per game, proving the strength of the nation's second best scoring defense. The offensive consistency for Tufts, however, was not stable enough for the team to overcome its opponent.
"I think they were just working really hard to make sure we didn't get open," North said of Thomas More stifling Tufts' offense. "They were denying any passes inside, making it really hard for any of my guards to even look into me. They were making every shot difficult and it was hard to get any shots off. And then they weren't really falling for us, so it made it hard to score."
Junior All-American Michela North and senior tri-captain Nicole Brooks salute each other during their handshake in the pre-game handshake line.The Saints relied on not just Moss, but the entire roster, to keep scoring up after halftime. Even if Moss was not at her best, Thomas More kept some cushion between itself and a Tufts team that did not give up. After answering all of Thomas More's runs, Tufts finally pulled even on a pair of free throws from Dillon. After almost four minutes had passed in the fourth quarter, Tufts and Thomas More were all square at 49-49.
The Jumbos regained momentum behind Folliard's hot hand and North's toughness down low. Over the next four and a half minutes though, Thomas More closed the door on Tufts' national championship hopes. A 10-0 run from the Saints lasted until just under two minutes remained in regulation, and by that point the deficit was too large for the Jumbos to climb back from.
Still, in the some of the most adverse conditions, with players on the bench in foul trouble and a bumpy offensive rhythm, the Tufts team challenged — and almost took down — the nation's top-seeded team and the heavy favorite. And given the extensive postseason experience that Tufts has built over three consecutive final four trips and a championship this year, along with the fact that a strong core of the team will be returning next season, the squad can't help but learn and benefit from this hard-fought game for future opportunities.
For more coverage of the event please visit the Tufts Daily's photography blog Picture Tufts at http://picturetufts.tuftsdaily.com/2016/04/05/jumbos-take-the-ncaa-championship-game/
