THOUSAND OAKS, CA (December 28, 2023) -- The No. 5 Tufts University men's basketball team played for the first time 19 days Thursday afternoon out in California, and the Jumbos weren't able to keep their unblemished 2023-24 season alive as Tufts fell 70-66 to host California Lutheran University in a tight non-conference battle at Gilbert Arena.
The loss snaps the longest win streak to open a season in program history at 10, as the Jumbos fell to 10-1 on the campaign while the Kingsmen improved to 7-3 on the season. The game was tied for the majority, especially in the first stanza as the largest lead of the entire stanza was seven for CLU with just over a minute to play in the frame. A three-pointer by
Khai Champion made the score 34-30 heading into the intermission, as he led the squad with nine points at the halftime break.
The Kingsmen pushed their lead up to 10 early in the second half, but Tufts rallied back to make it a four-point contest with 14:09 to go on a driving lay-up from first-year
Jon Medley. The Jumbos made it a one-score game with 10 minutes to go on a triple from newcomer
Liam Kennelly, but the hosts quickly pushed the lead back up to seven with eight minutes remaining on a pair of free throws by Devon Lewis.
Tufts scored the next five points, all on free throws, to get as close as it would the rest of the game at 54-52 with 6:01 left in the contest. The Kingsmen' lead swelled up to seven twice, the latest with 43 seconds to go but Tufts once again wouldn't go away as three made freebies by senior
Jay Dieterle made it 69-66 with 11 seconds left. Lewis would make one of his two shots at the line to make it a two-score game, sealing the win for Cal Lutheran.
Champion came off the bench to match his season-high scoring total with 17 points, going 6-of-13 from the floor overall. Sophomore
Scott Gyimesi tallied nine points, six rebounds and two assists for the Jumbos, while Dieterle added nine points and three steals for the Jumbos. Junior
Trumann Gettings also came off the bench to tally eight points and a team-high seven rebounds, while sophomore guard
James Morakis tallied eight points and four rebounds.
Tufts shot just 40.3 percent from the floor (25-62) on the night, going 3-of-17 from behind the arc in the contest. The Jumbos corralled 11 steals on the game, the second-most this year for a Tufts' team, and tallied a 40-24 edge in points in the paint.
Cal Lutheran was paced by the 19 from Lewis and Patrick Renane, as Renane also registered eight rebounds and three triples. Brock Susko also poured in 14 points for the Kingsmen in the win.
Tufts will have a day off Friday before taking on UT-Dallas Saturday afternoon at 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM Local on the campus of CLU in Gilbert Arena.
--JUMBOS--
