A 21-point blitz by No. 1 Amherst in the third quarter was the key factor that drove the team to its second consecutive NESCAC championship title on Sunday as it defeated No. 3 Tufts 41-37, finishing the season undefeated.
The championship game was played at a frenetic pace, with 21 turnovers in the first half. Tufts was able to keep Amherst quiet in that half, limiting its opponents to just 10 points. Of these 10 points, however, six of them came from the free-throw line, demonstrating the Jumbos’ defensive strength.
In particular, Tufts put up one of its best defensive performances the entire season in the second quarter, holding Amherst to only three points. Bench players junior guard Jennie Mucciarone and first-year guard Sadie Otley also contributed to this defensive effort, picking up two defensive rebounds each.
"Credit [goes] to the bench players who came in for people like me who were in foul trouble really early. They didn't let [Amherst] see the light of day or get any passes inside," senior tri-captain forward/center Michela North said. "They also went 0-for-7 from three, so that’s great defense on the part of our guards."
On offense, the Jumbos put up 16 points in the first half, going into the second half with the lead. Junior forward Melissa Baptista scored six points off two three-point attempts, while North and fellow senior tri-captain Josie Lee added two points each. Baptista finished the game with a game-high of 19 points, 15 of which came from the three-point range. She also added six rebounds and two assists.
“I think our first half was really great defensively – holding a team as good as Amherst, which scores so many points a game, to only 10 in the first half,” Otley said. “We felt really good about that. It was just really a problem with our scoring, which was a problem for us the last time, and then the third quarter defensively.”
But Amherst came back roaring in the third quarter, taking a nine-point lead by the fourth. Despite North opening the scoring in the second half to make it an eight-point lead, Amherst went on a 13-1 drive to seize the initiative. Amherst senior guard Ali Doswell racked up 11 of her 16 points in the third quarter alone. Despite Tufts’ relative success from the three-point range, 5-of-22 compared to Amherst’s 0-of-7, the Tufts offense could not get going in this game, as they went 15-of-54 (27.8 percent) for the Jumbos' lowest field goal percentage this entire season.
North attributes the loss to the defensive challenges that the team was unable to recover from in the third quarter.
“I think they did get a lot of points in transition off a lot of our turnovers,” North said. “They isolated Ali Doswell to just go one-on-one. She would drive or get a foul called and make some crazy baskets right at the end … They pulled me out [with] their post players near the three-point line ... and they had the opportunity to go one-on-one with our guards.”
A day earlier, the Jumbos successfully saw off the Bowdoin Polar Bears 49-44 to reach their fourth successive NESCAC Championship game. The Jumbos started off with two consecutive three-pointers from Baptista and sophomore guard Jacqueline Knapp, as they finished the first quarter 14-5.
Knapp added another three-pointer to make it 21-10 midway through the second, as the two teams traded points in a relatively even second quarter, which Tufts edged 14-10. Knapp eventually finished with a team-high nine points, seven rebounds and two assists. North was also pivotal in securing the team’s victory, as she finished with a game-high 14 rebounds, including 12 defensive rebounds.
But for all of Tufts’ success in the first half, Bowdoin kept the score close, eking out the third quarter 11-10. After first-year forward Maddie Hasson made the layup to make it 34-43 with 01:28 to play in the fourth, the Polar Bears changed their strategy to deliberately foul the Jumbos. This almost worked, as the Jumbos only made seven successful shots from their 15 trips to the line in the fourth quarter. However, Tufts’ 12-point lead coming into the final quarter was enough for them to see out the game.
Part of the reason for the success in the game came down to better composure from the Jumbos, according to Otley.
“I thought in that game we were a lot calmer and more composed than we were the first time we played them,” she said. “The first time, it was our first NESCAC game of the season, so everyone was very jacked up and a little over-excited. So we did a way better job of keeping our composure. Obviously, free throws didn’t go great down the stretch, and that allowed them to come back a little bit, but overall it was a solid win.”
The season is not over yet, as the Jumbos will host to the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament Friday and Saturday. Tufts faces St. Joseph's College on Friday, where the team hopes to take the final step and improve on last year’s National Championship 63-51 defeat to Thomas More. North believes the team will take the lessons from the NESCAC Championship and improve going forward.
“I think we’re all really excited to have the opportunity to play again,” North said. “We absolutely hate losing, especially to a team like Amherst where we’ve lost to them already once this season … so for that to actually happen, it really stung and [added] fuel to the fire. [It can] actually help us in the end. A team that's had an unbeaten season won’t have a chip on their shoulders like we have now."
North said she knows that the team has what it takes to make a good run in the NCAA tournament.
“Going forward, we just need to rally around each other … make sure we’re instilling confidence in one another because we know ... what we’re capable of,” she said. “Also, just remembering that we didn’t win the NESCAC championship last year but we still got to the national title game. Knowing that, we hopefully can climb that ladder again, go one game at a time, reach the championship game again and win this one.”
Tufts falls short against Amherst again, looks forward to NCAA tournament
