For the men's basketball team, Wednesday night's game against UMass Dartmouth was supposed to be a tune-up before the make-or-break NESCAC games that await this weekend.
It was anything but that. And hopefully for the Jumbos, Wednesday's 29-turnover effort in a 91-76 loss was more an aberration than a harbinger of problems to come.
The Jumbos knew the No. 17 Corsairs would turn up the defensive intensity, but when the game started, they struggled to adjust to the pressure.
"It was extremely frustrating to prepare for their press and know we were going to face it and then come out and not perform," junior co-captain Jon Pierce said. "In practice we tried to simulate the press we were going to face, but it's impossible to simulate that sort of pressure in practice."
After the Corsairs started the game with a three-pointer by junior guard Jeff Macchi, Tufts committed six turnovers within the first four minutes of play and fell to an early 11-2 deficit.
"We came out and dug ourselves in a huge hole by not taking care of the basketball, not coming to our passes, not making smart passes and not valuing the basketball," Pierce said.
The team certainly felt the void of sophomore point guard Matt Galvin, who has been out with hamstring problems. Galvin, who has started the first 13 games of the season, was replaced in the starting lineup by junior guard Reed Morgan, who also got help from freshman guard Amauris Quezada.
While both guards struggled at times, senior co-captain Aaron Gallant believes the game benefited the two players' development.
"We've missed Galvin ever since he's been gone, but at the same time I think the younger guys with less experience are coming along," Gallant said. "I think tonight was actually a good night for them to see that press and have to break it."
But during the first half, no one on the Tufts team could hang on to the ball. The Corsairs nabbed 15 steals and forced 20 Tufts turnovers; with 4:38 left in the first half, UMass Dartmouth held a 40-22 lead. The rest of the half, however, saw a large improvement in the Jumbos' offense, as they broke the press more consistently, giving them easy looks at the hoop. The Jumbos shot 67 percent in the first half, though they only managed to get off 21 shots. Finding an offensive rhythm, Tufts closed the half on a 15-6 run to cut the halftime deficit to only nine points.
"We thought that if we could value the basketball, they didn't really have the halfcourt defense to contain us," Pierce said. "We were 67 percent in the first half and we could get any shot we wanted, but the issue was we couldn't keep the ball."
A layup by junior forward Dave Beyel cut the Corsairs' lead to seven, 46-39, to start the second. But UMass Dartmouth responded quickly and held a double-digit lead throughout the last 10 minutes of the game. The Corsairs' offense capitalized on the Jumbos' turnovers, running hard in transition to create easy layups and open three-point attempts.
"When we turned it over, they were getting wide-open layups on the other end," Gallant said. "As long as we didn't turn it over, we were fine."
"In the halfcourt, they didn't really break us down, but they would force turnovers and push it in transition," Pierce added. "It was just a mad scramble, and we didn't recover well enough."
The Jumbos kept the game close in the second half but could never seem to rally for long enough to get back in the game.
"We could string together two stops, but couldn't string together three or four," Pierce said. "Every time we sort of made a run, we couldn't get the final two or three stops that really would have gotten us back in the game."
Pierce led the Jumbos with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Gallant added 15 points and junior center Tom Selby tallied 13 to join him in double figures.
Looking toward the weekend, Tufts will host Trinity (6-12, 2-3 NESCAC) tonight followed by a Saturday afternoon game against Amherst (16-4, 4-1 NESCAC). With a 1-5 NESCAC record, tied for last in the conference, the Jumbos desperately need to win at least one, and most likely both games, to remain in playoff contention.
"We've put ourselves in a situation where it's 'win or you're done,'" Pierce said. "Hopefully, we can all understand that it will take that much more mental focus, that much more toughness, that much more intelligent play."
