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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Men's Basketball | Tufts starts season with victory at Chuck Resler Tournament

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The men's basketball team came away as tournament champions from its season-opening Chuck Resler Tournament, but more importantly, substantiated the towering expectations for a team fighting to solidify its core.

Both sophomore center Tom Palleschi, whose college basketball career recently ended due to a heart condition, and junior guard Ben Ferris, last year's leading scorer who is sidelined with an injury, were missing over the weekend. Yet the Jumbos ran away with the tournament, winning their two games by an average of 25 points. Tufts' successful showing can be attributed to the amount of time the team put in during the offseason to prepare.

"I think it comes down to practice - getting everybody into practice and knowing what they needed to do," sophomore forward Zach Roswald said. "We worked really hard these first couple of weeks before the season."

Senior tri-captain Kwame Firempong also credits the team's willingness to play together and do whatever they had to do to replace Palleschi and Ferris.

"Missing Tom and Ben, we had this 'next guy up' mentality," Firempong said. "We know everybody on the team is not necessarily able to do what those guys did, but everybody can fill a role and play to their strengths."

The first game was a display of the depth and hard work the team has been preaching, as seven players scored in double figures in the Jumbos' 113-81 romp over D'Youville College.

Firempong, along with sophomore guard Stephen Haladyna, were the only starters to score in double figures, each adding 12. Instead, it was the bench doing most of the heavy lifting, with sophomore guard Ryan Spadaford, senior forward Tommy Folliard and Roswold contributing 11, 14 and 14, respectively.

Two freshmen, guard Tarik Smith and center Hunter Sabety, had particularly impressive performances. Sabety led the team in scoring with 17, throwing down four dunks throughout the game, while Smith began his career as a Jumbo with a double-double, scoring 15 points and dropping 12 dimes, as the small guard pierced through the D'Youville press with ease.

"I think a lot [of success] can be attributed to the freshmen," Firempong said. "They were willing to learn and acclimate themselves well, and they've been playing extremely well in practice and throughout the fall."

Despite having so little time to work many of their players into the rotation, the Jumbos took the lead early and never looked back, which Firempong attributes to a team focus on starting strong.

"Last year, one of our big problems was coming out slow," he said. "So as captains this year, one of the things we focused on was coming out with an energetic and high-energy mindset. We can't wait until the second half ... to dig ourselves out of a hole."

The championship game, against SUNY Oneonta, was more of the same, as once again, the Jumbos never trailed on their way to a 96-78 victory.

The Jumbos continued to show their impressive depth, with five players scoring in double figures. Firempong scored 14 on his way to being named tournament MVP, and Sabety again led the team with 18 points off the bench.

Although Tufts was the tournament favorite, securing the championship was still important for a team that started last season 3-5 before kicking things into high gear late in the season.

Despite the impressive performance, the team still knows it can improve before NESCAC play begins in January.

"We could definitely have improved upon our start in the second half [of the second game]," Folliard said. "We let up 50 points in the second half of the second game, and it was something similar in the first game, so we can definitely improve on our start in the second half."

And if the Jumbos can continue to work and improve until they get Ferris back, then those expectations will grow even loftier as the season progresses.