Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tufts dispatches Conn. College, advances to NESCAC semifinals

2U1A2365
Junior guard Jac Knapp puts up a shot in the NESCAC Quarterfinal game against Conn. College on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The Tufts women's basketball team's offensive production was on display on Saturday, as it saw off Conn. College for the second time in three weeks, defeating the visitors 85–48 in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.The 85 points that third-seeded Tufts put up on Saturday afternoon was its highest tally since defeating University of New England, 86–49, in early December.

Four of the Jumbos' starters picked up double-digit points tallies against the Camels, with senior forward and two-time NESCAC Player of the Week Melissa Baptista posting a game-high 21 points. Tufts' guards were equally impressive, as senior co-captain Lauren Dillon picked up 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists (team-highs in the latter two categories), while junior Jac Knapp recorded 15 points.

Tufts coach Carla Berube had high praise for her team's offensive performance on Saturday.

"When you score on the first [six] shots you take in a game, it’s a good start," Berube said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of finding open teammates against their zone, executing well offensively and finding Melissa a lot inside. She did a good job of scoring... I also thought we did some nice things in transition when we got up and down, so I was happy with our offense."

The Jumbos were also able to welcome back sophomore guard/forward Erica DeCandido, whose last action came against the Camels on Jan. 26. In her 18-minute cameo on Saturday, DeCandido contributed 12 points and four rebounds.Her presence on the court, according to first-year forward Angela Alibrandi, was important for the team going forward.

"Her return is huge, she’s such an awesome player and she contributes so much both defensively and offensively," Alibrandi said. "We’ve definitely been hurting without her, so it’s nice to have her back, but most importantly we want her feeling good. I think because she’s gonna be a huge contribution for us as we look to play this weekend and hopefully get some NCAA wins in there, too."

Tufts' high-energy start proved to be crucial against the visitors from New London, Conn. Baptista got the ball rolling with a jump shot just 13 seconds into the game, as the Jumbos raced out to a 15–6 lead before the midway point of the first quarter.After Conn. College tried to slow the hosts' momentum with a timeout, Dillon quickly gave Tufts an even more commanding position with a three-pointer, one of three she made in the game.

The team's high three-point shooting percentage surely contributed to its success. The Jumbos scored 24 points from beyond the arc, and their mark of 47.1 percent (8-for-17) was their second-highest conversation rate from downtown this season.

With Tufts up 26–13 after the first quarter, thanks to its stifling defense, it seemed that the game was all but decided. Alibrandi's two free throws with 3:42 left in the second period gave the Jumbos a 15-point lead. However, an uncharacteristic lapse in Tufts' defensive intensity allowed the sixth-seeded Conn. College back into the game, as the visitors cut the deficit to 10 by halftime. Berube appeared to be annoyed at her team's defensive performance late in the second quarter.

"I just thought our defense wasn’t up to par," Berube said. "We weren’t working hard enough in terms of how we were defending Hynes, and she’s a very good player. She was making some tough shots, but I don’t think we were defending her the way we should have been and making it hard for her to even catch it. I needed to let some of our post players know, and they did a much better job in the second half on her."

Tufts' defensive game plan primarily focused on trying to limit the production of Conn. College senior forward Mairead Hynes, who ranks second in the conference in points per game (15.7). The Jumbos often doubled or even tripled her, with mixed success. Nonetheless, Hynes led Conn. College with 20 points, with 16 of those coming before the break. In the last 2:30 of the first half, Hynes made two layups and a jump shot to narrow the gap to just 10 points.

Mid-way through the third quarter with a comfortable lead, the Cousens Gymnasium crowd was mildly bemused as Berube switched her team into a zone defense, something rarely seen in Berube's 16 years of coaching the team. Whether or not it was specifically to limit the damage that Hynes was doing to her team, or intending to test out a look for next week's opponents, it proved to be effective, as Hynes posted just two points in her seven minutes on the court in the period.Offensively, the Jumbos picked up from where they had left off in the first half, scoring 26 points to put the game beyond doubt going into the final quarter of action.

"[The zone defense] is something brand new and that’s been in the works for a couple of weeks," Alibrandi said. "I think it does a really good job of just flustering the offense, making people make rash decisions and just making it difficult to see where they’re going to pass. If they’re able to get that shot off ... it's a non-high percentage shot, that we want them to take."

Following a layup by Tufts senior guard and co-captain Jennie Mucciarone with about six minutes to play, Berube emptied her bench.Conn. College coach Brian Wilson responded in kind after sophomore guard Sadie Otley's three-pointer with 2:38 left to play, which put Tufts up by 36 points. Many in Cousens stood to applaud the visitors' only graduating senior, as Hynes walked off the court in the final game of her collegiate career.

On Saturday, Tufts will take on second-seeded Bowdoin (24–1, 9–1 NESCAC) in the NESCAC semifinals in Amherst, Mass. In a 66–53 loss to the Polar Bears on Jan. 6, the Jumbos committed 27 personal fouls, leading to 32 points from the free-throw line for their opponents. With a win on Saturday, Tufts would advance to the NESCAC final for the third consecutive year, where it would face the winner of the other semifinal matchup between top-seeded Amherst and fifth-seeded Wesleyan.

Berube believes that the team's key to success on Saturday, with a return to the NESCAC championship game on the line, will be to learn from the mistakes it made in January.

"We have to be a much more disciplined team defensively," Berube said. "We can’t be sitting on the sidelines with fouls or letting them get easy points at the free-throw line because they’re a very good free-throw shooting team. We also just take care of the ball better. We threw it away too many times especially to start the game, so discipline offensively and just playing smarter. We’re looking forward to [playing Bowdoin again], and we want to be playing on Sunday. We know there’s a formidable opponent on Saturday, and we've really got to play our best on Saturday to play for the championship on Sunday."