Women's basketball: Tufts overcomes challenges on the road to stay unbeaten

No. 1 Tufts continued its dominant start to the 2017–18 season with two road wins this past week. Prior to Thanksgiving break, Tufts won 64–38 at Emerson on Tuesday night, before resuming normal service after break with a 62–41 victory over Brandeis on Sunday. With that, the Jumbos move to 4–0 to start the season.

On Sunday, the Jumbos overcame a relatively shaky second quarter to win at the Brandeis Judges. Tufts started out in a typically strong fashion, racing to a 13–0 lead to begin the quarter, allowing the team to lead from start to finish. Tufts showed its reputation as a strong defensive team under coach Carla Berube, as it defended strongly both on the perimeter and in the paint. It was only with 4:20 remaining in the first quarter that first-year guard Katherine Puda got Brandeis on the board with a three-pointer. Tufts eventually finished the quarter with an 18–9 lead.

In the second quarter, Tufts struggled to match its first-quarter display, missing several three-point shots. Despite this, the Jumbos were still able to limit the Judges to just 13 points while they scored 10 on their own, as they went into halftime with a 28–22 lead.

The Jumbos got off to a hot start in the second half, going on a 14–5 run in the opening seven minutes to stretch their lead to 42–27. This dominance continued in the final quarter. Junior guard Jac Knapp's jumpshot with four minutes remaining in the game made the score 60–39. Tufts grew the lead to 23 with 2:37 remaining off of Knapp's free throws, before Brandeis' sophomore guard Katie Goncalo wrapped up the scoring for the game with a layup with 2:20 to play.

Knapp explained that some adjustments were made going into the third quarter that got the Jumbos the victory in the end.

“In the second quarter we had a little bit of a wobble in the side, we weren’t highly energized and weren’t making it difficult for the [opposing] team on offense," Knapp said. "We did not play well when we had the ball on the other side of the floor, so coming out in the third quarter, we knew that we had to really step it up on the defensive end, more energy, get some steals and make it hard for Brandeis and we were able to do that and that fuelled our offense."

Three Jumbos finished with double-digit scoring in the game: sophomore guard/forward Erica DeCandido (19 points), senior forward Melissa Baptista (14 points) and Knapp (12 points). On Brandeis' end, sophomore guard Hannah Nicholson led the game with 10 rebounds and a tied team-high of six points.

On Tuesday night, Tufts went into the Thanksgiving break after a comfortable victory at Emerson. DeCandido also led this game with 16 points, with a spotless performance at the line (making 10/10 free throws). Baptista finished with a game-high eight rebounds and contributed with 12 points on her own. First-year guard/forward Erica Briggs was equally important with contributions off the bench as she finished the game with a career-high 12 points.

"The bench did a really good job in the Emerson game," Knapp said. "Coach always said that whenever we’re putting players in that these players should bring a spark and just continue what had been going on the court before they stepped on. She talked a lot about the bench having the ability to bring that spark that we need and be a contributor. Everyone on the team is a contributor, and everyone has a role and I thought that the bench did a really good job showing our depth in that game."

Emerson, however, began the game with a 5–0 run. But after Briggs gave Tufts an 8–7 lead with a layup after 5:36 in the first quarter, the Jumbos never trailed in the game again. Baptista's basket was followed by a three-pointer from senior guard Maya Savino almost two minutes later to knot the game at 10–10. Sophomore guard Sadie Otley's three-point shot then gave the Jumbos a 15–10 lead at the end of the first, which sparked a 13–4 run over two quarters. The run gave the Jumbos a comfortable 32–20 lead to take into the half.

Despite the best efforts of the Emerson players, Tufts' lead never fell into single digits after the half. That lead soon became 20 points after junior forward Katie Martensen made a jumpshot with 6:05 to play in the final quarter, before senior guard Gina Doyle made a final three-point shot with 1:46 left to play to seal victory for the Jumbos.

The team will be at the Williams Invitational this weekend, facing off against Rochester on Friday and Bridgewater State on Saturday. Tufts beat Bridgewater State 51–36 last year, with then-junior guard Jennie Mucciarone leading the team with 13 points on that evening.

Despite the perfect start of the season, DeCandido knows the team still has much to work on.

"Consistency definitely [is something we need to work on], as we kind of have really good quarters and drop a little," DeCandido said. "We want to just always keep that high intensity and also probably just continue to work on our defense. You can just always be better than the game before."

In particular the Rochester game would be a challenge -- they will be Tufts' highest-ranked opponent to date.

"Rochester has a really good center [in senior Alexandra Leslie] so we just have to play really good team defense on her," DeCandido said. "She’s an All-American and she’s obviously gonna be good. We have an All-American post [in Baptista] too, so it’s going to be a good battle."