When the Jumbos men’s basketball team returned to Medford, Mass. to resume their spring semester campaign on the Cousens Gymnasium floor on Friday night, memories of the struggles the first weekend of NESCAC play of the previous three years lingered as the Jumbos looked to sweep the opening weekend of conference play for the first time since the 2019–20 season. When the clock hit triple zeroes on Saturday afternoon, the now No. 9 Tufts had taken care of business against Colby and Bowdoin, moving to 14–2 for the season for the first time since the 2016–17 season.
Head Coach Brandon Linton identified this weekend as a potential challenge in an interview before the winter break. “[Over the last three years,] we’ve taken a step back in the second semester, so [we’ve] got to handle this break with maturity and come back ready to go against more stiff competition,” Linton said. This sentiment especially rang true after Tufts was upset by Nichols College on Dec. 30, 2024 in the final of the Clark University Holiday Tournament, a stinging second loss of the year.
Bowdoin entered Cousens in good form, having won their three previous matchups against Division III opponents. Additionally, they had left an impression in the national discussion with their performance on Jan. 5 at Harvard, where they were able to hold them off to a 71–65 win, leading for more than 30 minutes in the matchup against a Division I foe.
The Jumbos were also given an extra challenge in facing the Polar Bears, as they had to do it without junior guard James Morakis, the team’s leading scorer, averaging 18.9 ppg, — the second most in the NESCAC. In his place, sophomore guard Liam Kennelly received the start, looking to provide additional defensive support to help guard Bowdoin’s uber-talented Ray Cuevas, who leads all NESCAC rookies in scoring.
From the game’s opening tip, it was clear that the Jumbos had developed an effective game plan to deal with Cuevas and the rest of the Polar Bears’ attack. All five of the Jumbos starters scored inside five minutes as they raced out to a 13–3 lead, forcing the Polar Bears to attempt 22 3-pointers. Thanks to the inside defense of junior forward Scott Gyimesi and junior center Joshua Bernstein, the Jumbos were able to crash the contest, secure the rebound and play in transition, leading to many open looks as they cruised to a 76–54 win with a double-digit margin throughout the entire second half. The Jumbos received a balanced offensive attack in the win, with sophomore guard Dylan Reilly pacing the team with 17 points, and four of the five starters reached double digits.
When asked about the win, Gyimesi told the Daily, “I think we have the deepest team in the country. We have a roster of 18 guys ready to go on any given night, and last night’s balanced attack was a great display of that.”
Fresh off their impressive display against Bowdoin, Tufts took on Colby College Saturday afternoon, seeking revenge for a 66–64 loss a year ago. The return of Morakis was pivotal in the showdown against the 9–4 Mules, as he provided 16 points and five rebounds in only 20 minutes. On Morakis, Linton said, “When he’s right, there’s nobody in the country that can stop him.” Even better for the Jumbos, nobody on the Mules’ roster had any method of stopping Gyimesi, who scored 33 points on just 17 shots en route to his ninth double-double of the season.
Late in the game, trailing 71–65 with eight minutes and four seconds to play in regulation, the Jumbos turned to their “three-and-D” specialist Dylan Reilly, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 71 points. After he hit a third second-half three to give the Jumbos a 74–73 lead, it would be the inside game of senior forward Truman Gettings alongside Gyimesi that helped seal the win. The duo would combine to score the Jumbos’ next 15 points, helping push the lead up to 7 points, with the Mules not getting within a possession of the lead at any point in the final five minutes as the Jumbos rolled to a 90–82 win, moving to 14–2 on the year.
This win pushes the Jumbos’ win streak to four for the third time this season. On Friday evening, the Jumbos will travel to Williamstown, Mass. to take on the 10–4 Ephs, with an opportunity to get a third winning streak of at least five games for the first time since the 2019–20 season. When they arrive, they will be the No. 9 team in the nation, having moved up four places in Monday’s Top 25 after a weekend where numerous Top 25 teams were upset. Despite the chaos elsewhere, the Jumbos have kept on rising, leading the NESCAC after one week and proving their place among the nation’s elite with a month to go before postseason play.
