Box Score MEDFORD - On senior day at Cousens Gymnasium, the fourth-ranked Tufts women's basketball team (23-1, 10-0 NESCAC) left no doubt that they deserve the number one seed in the NESCAC tournament as they took down a tough Bowdoin squad (21-3, 9-1 NESCAC) 66-55. Tufts finishes the regular season at 10-0 in the conference and will host a first-round NESCAC tournament game next weekend. Polar Bear senior guard Sara Binkhorst led all scorers with 23 points, while four different Jumbos put up double-digits, with Hayley Kanner leading the way with 17.
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| Kanner registered 3 blocks and 4 steals in the Jumbo victory |
In a game that always seems to have something on the line and always seems to be played on the final weekend of the regular season, it is no surprise tensions were running high at Cousens. An energetic, fast-paced tempo was established early and persisted throughout the game as the top two defensive teams in the NESCAC battled it out for the number one seed in the conference tournament.
Hannah Foley put the Jumbos on the board first on a three from way downtown, but a nice steal and dish by freshman guard Kate Kerrigan to wide-open first-year point guard Sydney Hancock behind the arc would give the Polar Bears an early 8-5 lead.
Melissa Baptista entered the game and contributed immediately, igniting a spark on both ends of the court for the Jumbos. In less than a minute and a half, she tallied seven points and made multiple hustle plays on defense.
Binkhorst hit a jumper on the other end to halt the brief Jumbo roll and to bring the Polar Bears to within two, but, shortly after, Tufts responded with an 11-0 run, which included a Kanner three ball, some solid play inside from Michela North, and diligent work on the defensive end from the Jumbos.
The next six points belonged to Binkhorst as the 42% three-point shooter connected from long range twice to cut the deficit to five at 29-24. But the Jumbos ended the half with five straight points to take a 34-24 advantage into halftime.
The Jumbos converted on their first three shots coming out of the break which extended their lead to 16 and forced Bowdoin to call a timeout. The Polar Bears got a quick lay-up from sophomore guard Marle Curle, but the Jumbos rattled off seven in a row capped off by a textbook fastbreak from Lauren Dillon and Kanner.
Bowdoin continued to struggle for stops on the defensive end and Foley, the top three-point shooter in the conference, nailed a trey for a 22 point Jumbo lead.
A handful of minutes later, the speedy Binkhorst juked and landed her fourth three of the day, but it was sandwiched between a fantastic Kanner left hook in the paint and an easy Baptista bucket created by excellent Jumbo ball movement.
With just under eight minutes to play, Kerrigan drilled a three to cut the lead to 16, but North countered two minutes later with a huge offensive rebound and and-one putback. Junior forward Shannon Brady went to work on the offensive end, recording four quick points, but with time winding down, the Polar Bears were forced to deploy a full-court press, which left the back-end vulnerable to Jumbo fastbreaks.
Bowdoin put together a last-minute effort that narrowed the Jumbo advantage to 11, but the comeback fell short as the lead was insurmountable with time running out.
Dillon once again played confidently at the point directing traffic, while her teammates executed smoothly on both ends of the court. A balanced offense resulted in four different Jumbos reaching double-digit scoring. Kanner finished the game with 17 points, while Foley tallied 15 including three three-pointers. North ended the game with a strong 15 points, while Baptista came off the bench for 14 points.
The number one scoring defense in the country went to work again as they flustered the Bowdoin offense, nabbing ten steals and forcing many of the Polar Bears' twenty turnovers, a weakness of Bowdoin's that the Jumbos preyed upon. The young Polar Bear squad averages 17 turnovers per game, second-worst in the NESCAC. Kanner, North, and Baptista combined for six rejections, a category Tufts ranks ninth in nationally.
Binkhorst scored 15 of her 23 points on an impressive 5 of 5 shooting from three-point land and handed out 7 assists, while Brady finished the afternoon with 12 points.
The Jumbos will take their 15 game winning streak into next weekend to play the number eight seed at Cousens, while the Polar Bears will host the seventh seeded squad at home in Brunswick, Maine next weekend as they have wrapped up the number two seed.
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