There are plenty of numerical accomplishments to measure the historical significance of this season for the women's basketball team.
There is the season-opening winning streak, which was extended to a program-record 16 games on Monday with a 64-40 victory over Wheaton College. There is the national recognition, which has earned Tufts a program-high No. 6 ranking in both the NCAA and d3hoops.com polls. Then there are the long-term markers, like coach Carla Berube's200th win, which came in a 54-41 victory over Middlebury on Jan. 5, making her the first Tufts women's basketball coach to achieve that feat. There was sophomore Hannah Foley's career-high 18 points, which came on Dec. 31 against Conn. College, and her classmate Hayley Kanner's career-high 16 points, which came on Dec. 1 against Regis College.
But accomplishments only mean as much as those involved choose to let them, and for a Jumbos squad that is always taking things a game at a time and looking to get better, all of those stats were just a means to an end. And, 16 games into its regular season and nearly halfway through its conference slate, the team's true goals are still a ways away.
"We always set big goals," graduate co-captain Kate Barnosky said. "There are certain teams that we always want to beat, and we want to make it to the tournament and so on and so forth, but I think that we really just try to focus on getting better every single day. It's great that we've won all of these games so far and have this winning streak, but they won't mean anything if we don't get it done in the NESCAC tournament and from there on, and the competition is going to get a lot tougher."
Tufts returned from its holiday break on Dec. 31 to take on NESCAC rival Conn. College in a non-conference matchup. In their first chance to send a message of their intentions this season to the rest of the conference, the Jumbos opened the game on a 25-5 run, all but putting it out of reach just over 10 minutes into the contest. This gave Berube the chance to go deep into her bench in the second half, and play nearly the entire team at least five minutes as Tufts cruised, 69-37.
Three days later, and just 48 hours before their NESCAC opener, the Jumbos once again dominated the first half, opening up their Jan. 2 contest at Clark University with a 33-8 run. The Cougars came charging back in the second half, shooting 54.2 percent from the field and forcing Berube to keep her starters on the court for longer than she may have planned. But in the end Tufts never let the lead shrink down to single digits, finishing the Cougars off 65-53.
The Jumbos opened their conference slate with a key matchup at home on Jan.4 against Williams. The Ephs entered the game 9-1 on the season with a long history of success against Tufts. But the Jumbos grabbed the initiative with yet another fast start, opening on a 13-4 run.
The upperclassmen took over early, with Barnosky scoring the team's first five points before junior guard Liz Moynihan came off the bench and went to work, adding six of her own. But it was Foley who the Ephs could not seem to answer. She went into the locker room with 11 points, helping the Jumbos to a 35-26 halftime lead. Foley earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors for her performance in the team's four games that week, averaging 13.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals.
Tufts seemed to have the game under control in the second half, but the Ephs responded, bringing back memories for Tufts of a devastating overtime loss to Williams two years earlier on the very same floor.
Down nine with less than two minutes to go, Williams managed to cut the lead down to four after Jumbo miscues, forcing Berube to call a timeout.
"We've made mistakes in the past, so we just talked about situations," Barnosky said of the team's talk during the timeout. "We discussed what we wanted to do defensively and the type of offense we wanted to play and how much time was left. I think we just need to be more aware of specific situations."
Tufts ran the shot clock down before taking a shot, and though it went wide, senior co-captain BreDufault outworked two Eph defenders for the rebound. After running the clock down once again, the ball went out of bounds with little time left to shoot. But Moynihan was able to pick out sophomore point guard Kelsey Morehead driving through the lane on the inbounds pass, feeding her a pass for a quick layup that served as the dagger. The Jumbos held on for the win, 61-57.
"It's always great to beat Williams, but I don't think we played anywhere near our best in that game," Barnosky said. "When it came down to it, we made plays when we needed to, we got shots when we needed to, and people just stepped up and got it done."
The following day, the Jumbos looked to notch Berube's200th victory against Middlebury. But playing on consecutive days for the first time this season, the team came out flat. The Jumbos shot just 23.2 percent from the field in the first half, and excluding Kanner, who was able to use her size inside to consistently get to the basket, combined to go just 3-of-22 from the field.
"Williams is always a big rival of ours, and I think we got extra hyped up for the Williams game," Barnosky said. "And we always talk about treating every game the same, but I think that a lot of energy went into the game the night before, so it was tough to get that exact same mentality less than 24 hours later."
But the Jumbos' defense stood strong, forcing nine first-half turnovers and holding the Panthers to just 29.2 percent shooting from the field. Middlebury senior guard Tracy Borsinger, the NESCAC's leading scorer, managed just two points in the first half and four points on the game. The result was a 20-18 halftime lead for the cold-handed Jumbos.
Tufts finally began to find its shot in the second half, especially from beyond the arc. Foley hit a 3-pointer immediately after the Panthers tied things at 20, and Barnosky and Moynihan each had two 3-pointers of their own. Middlebury was still within seven points with three minutes to go, but the Tufts defense held strong, earning a 54-41 win.
As in recent years, defense has been the backbone of the Jumbos' success. As of Jan. 13, Tufts was fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 45.4 points per game.
"It is our energy that has been the key on defense. No matter who comes into the game, keeping that energy high has made us successful," Moynihan said. "The way we play defense fuels our game, we have some great defenders with in-your-face ball pressure that are able to create steals and turnovers. We also have post-defenders that can play with anyone."
After nearly a week off following the Middlebury game, Tufts made its first NESCAC road trip of the year, traveling to Maine last weekend to take on Bowdoin and Colby. While both the Polar Bears and Mules have proud histories, both schools are suffering through frustrating seasons, and the Jumbos took advantage. Against Bowdoin on Friday night, Tufts allowed only six first-half points, holding Bowdoin to just 3-of-18 shooting while forcing 13 turnovers. The pace picked up in the second half, but the Jumbos went stride-for-stride with the Polar Bears, scoring 43 second-half points, led by eight points each from Barnosky and Morehead, which propelled Tufts to a 62-44 win.
Following that game, Tufts completed a perfect 4-0 start to their NESCAC schedule with a victory over Colby. After five early points from the Mules, the Jumbos responded with 14 unanswered of their own, eventually stretching the lead to 15 by halftime. Colby got within nine in the second half, but a strong half from Kanner, who finished the game with nine points and three blocks, was enough to close the door.
The team's three sophomores - Kanner, Foley and Morehead - have been a revelation for Berube's squad. Kanner is 30th in the nation in blocks per game and has improved dramatically on the offensive end as well. Foley, along with her conference player of the week award, leads the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game, while Morehead has embraced the role as the team's go-to point guard, playing nearly 30 minutes a night and running the offense, while turning the ball over an average of just once per game.
"The three of them were all major contributors as freshmen last year, but what's even better is that they all really wanted to get better in the offseason and they did," Barnosky said. "They are all stepping up in games and becoming huge parts of our team."
Following the team's 64-40 win on Monday against Wheaton, the Jumbos are just eight games away from a perfect regular season. But the road only gets more difficult from here, with nationally ranked in-conference opponents and stingy tests outside of the NESCAC.
To get through those games, the Jumbos know they are going to need to play nearly flawless basketball.
"We all know that we have a target on our back every single game, and I think it's something that we like," Barnosky said. "It shows we have respect from other teams and coaches, but it also means that we have to bring it every single game. Which is a good thing, because then every single game can make us better."
