On Saturday, January 20, the women’s basketball team played at home against Tufts, a team that is ranked eighth in the country. The game started out tight but the Bobcats fell behind and unfortunately could not come back, losing 67-28 in the end.
The only scorers of the game for the Bobcats were Nina Davenport ’18, Taylor McVeigh ’21, and Julia Middlebrook ’21. During this game, Davenport, the leading NESCAC scorer at 18.3 points per game, scored 18 points for the Bobcats. First-year Taylor McVeigh scored 2 points and had six rebounds, which was the team high of the game. First-year Julia Middlebrook scored another 8 points for the Bobcats.
“Last night’s game against Tufts was definitely a tough one to swallow because we came out with such fire and energy in the first quarter. Even though it’s not the outcome we wanted, we have to learn from our mistakes and focus on the next stretch of the season,” says Middlebrook.
In the first quarter, it was an exciting and tight match as both teams battled hard, ending the period 12-10. Davenport made 4 of the 7 shots in this opening quarter and 2 of 5 from three. With 5:57 remaining in the second quarter, a fantastic layup by McVeigh and a 3 pointer by Davenport made it 16-15 in Tufts’ favor. However, the Jumbos aggressively finished the first half with a 16-2 run.
In the second half, Tufts completely controlled the game. They outscored the Bobcats 17-6 in the third quarter and 18-5 in the fourth. After three periods, the Jumbos led the Bobcats with a score of 49-23. From Tufts, Jac Knapp and Melissa Baptista scored 6 points each in the third quarter and Cailin Harrington added another 5 points. Knapp added another 7 points in the fourth quarter in four minutes and six other Tuft players scored as well.
“I thought we were really able to compete with them in the first quarter, and then the game kind of got away from us after that. I thought Nina shot especially well, scoring most of our points,” says Caroline Bogue ’21.
This was unfortunately the game where Bates had their lowest point total in over a decade. Tufts outrebounded by a 57-27 margin and outscored 38-6 in the paint. This led to Bates having their season low 19.0 percent shooting from the floor for the game.
“Tufts is a really talented team and in order to compete with a team like that you have to have an extra level of focus. The window is very narrow to find an open shot against a tough defense so we could’ve done a better job recognizing when it was the best opportunity to score rather than waiting for a wide open shot. Next weekend is our last weekend at home, we are looking forward to playing with high intensity and leaving it all out on Alumni,” says Lyse Henshaw ‘18.
For the Jumbos, Jac Knapp led with 17 points. Melissa Baptista added another 13 point and Katie Martensen scored 10 points with 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. Erica DeCandido had the game high of 13 rebounds. Lauren Dillon contributed to the big win with six assists and two steals.
The Bobcats will be playing Wesleyan on Friday, January 26 in Alumni Gym where, with the adrenaline and emotions from this tough loss against Tufts, they are hoping to come back with a win.