Men's basketball continues successful start to season, improves to 13–3

After defeating Hamilton and Amherst over the weekend, the men’s basketball team remains undefeated in NESCAC play and owns an impressive 13–3 overall record. In their last game on Jan. 18, junior center Luke Rogers’ 25 points paired with senior guard and co-captain Eric Savage’s 18 points, eight rebounds and nine assists propelled the Jumbos to a 96–78 victory over the Amherst Mammoths. This gave the Jumbos their second win in two days after beating the Hamilton Continentals the day before by a score of 78–72, off of 21 points and 16 rebounds from Rogers. Despite the successful weekend and start to the season, the Jumbos are still preparing for the challenges ahead. 

“Every game in the NESCAC is a grind [because] you only play everybody once, so it means a lot," Savage said. "We also sort of put together a resume that has led to a target being on our back a little bit, you know people are coming for us. If we can keep our energy high and our tempo and our pace high, you know we’re going to be tough to beat.”

These two conference wins come on the heels of an 89–78 loss to Suffolk on Jan. 14. Suffolk sophomore guard Max Bonney-Liles dropped 31 points while Suffolk more than doubled Tufts’ three-point shooting percentage. 

Savage blamed this loss on themselves, looking internally rather than crediting Suffolk.

“[Against] Suffolk we kind of came out and did not have much energy, but I don’t think that [they were] necessarily like a strong opponent,” said Savage. “I think it was just more of an internal problem.” 

Before the loss to Suffolk, Tufts went on a five-game winning streak in which they beat Wesleyan University, Nichols College, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of La Verne and University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston).

In a 92–85 victory over Wesleyan on Jan. 10, four out of five starters reached double figures in scoring. These high scorers paired with junior guard and co-captain Will Brady's 9 points off the bench after going three-for-three from the three-point arc proved to be lethal. 

“I think for me obviously shooting is what I do best, so that’s my job on the team," Brady said. "I come off the bench and provide a little bit of spark energy-wise and defensively."

When asked about the Jumbos’ success during the season and this five-game winning streak, Brady referenced the role of strong chemistry in addition to talent across the team. 

“I think we’re a team that wants to get up and down the court and run," Brady said. "We feel like we have pretty good depth and a lot of people who can score and definitely can shoot. I think just overall we are all really good friends and our team chemistry is good.” 

Tufts’ depth and scoring distribution, as described by Savage and Brady, was on full display in their games against Nichols, Caltech and UMass Boston. Tufts’ depth really shined when the bench tallied 27 points in their 75–65 victory over Nichols on Jan. 4. On Dec. 29 against Caltech, the starters combined for 84 points en route to a 99–83 victory. Coming up big again, the bench provided 29 points in the team’s  71–49 win over UMass Boston on Dec. 11. 

Tufts went 1–1 in the New England Big Four Challenge Championship, losing to Babson College on Dec. 8 by a score of 99–85 after beating Brandeis University 68–61 the day before. This tournament came after Tufts lost to Worcester Polytechnic Institute by a score of 72–62 on Dec. 3, the team’s first loss of the season. 

“It was our first big test of the year and we came out a little bit flat — I think we hadn’t found our stride offensively yet,” Savage said. “We hadn’t played a team that was that good on the defensive side of the ball, so when they locked up, we struggled to score.”

The Jumbos treated this month-and-a-half stretch of games as a learning opportunity, using their time as an opportunity to see games through and bury the opposition.

“We’ve had to learn lessons in terms of like finishing games and finishing teams out," Savage said. "We’d be up by 10 mid second half and not really be able to extend that lead to 20 and sort of put them away. I think playing in close games against tough opponents is really going to help you down the stretch if you want to make a postseason run."

Despite their improvement, the Jumbos still have a few changes to make if they want to accomplish their goals throughout the season, according to Brady. 

“I think a season-long process for us is being as good of a defensive team as we can," Brady said. "I think last year that was our biggest issue. We’re a little bit undersized at the one through four so just continuing to grow and play defense and make sure that we out rebound teams is huge for us.”