COLLEGE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FINAL SCORE
Tufts 68
Fitchburg State 59
At Medford
Saturday, January 8, 2005
MEDFORD – Tufts University scored the last 10 points of the game to post a 68-59 victory over Fitchburg State College in an exciting non-conference women's basketball game on Saturday afternoon at Cousens Gymnasium. The Jumbos (8-1) handed the Falcons (9-1) their first loss of the season.
Junior Jessica Powers (Massapequa, NY) and sophomore Valerie Krah (Mountain Lakes, NJ) both picked up their game to lead Tufts to the finish line. They both scored four points during Tufts' 10-0 run over the final 2:36. Krah hit a big three-pointer to put Tufts up by four, 63-59, with 1:35 remaining. Powers scored the final four points to seal the victory.
Powers led the Jumbos overall with 16 points and added eight assists and five rebounds, while Krah finished with 13 points. Senior tri-captain Jenn Kirkland (Somerville, MA) had 14 points (6 of 7 on field goals), seven rebounds and three blocks to pace Fitchburg State.
Fitchburg led 35-29 at the half and kept the advantage for 14 minutes into the second half. A 7-2 spurt by Tufts tied the game at 50-50 on a lay-up by senior Allison Love (Duxbury, MA) with 5:43 on the clock. The teams traded the lead back-and-forth over the next three minutes until junior Katherine Miller (Bangor, ME) gave Tufts the lead (60-59) for good with two free throws at 2:06. That started the 10-0 run by the Jumbos to close the game.
After beginning the game a half-hour late due to Fitchburg's tardy arrival because of the snowstorm, the teams put together a well-played, close first half. The biggest Tufts lead was five (twice) and the largest Falcon margin was six (at halftime). Junior guard Julia Verplank (Zeeland, MI), who would leave the game with a knee injury in the second half, had nine points to lead Tufts at the half. Sophomore D'Yana Delpero (Peabody, MA) scored nine for Fitchburg. Falcon senior tri-captain Samantha Sweeney (Haverhill, MA) had to leave the game with a broken nose in the first half.
The Falcons led by as many as 12 after they scored the first six points of the second half for a 41-29 advantage on a jumper by Kirkland at 18:00. Tufts gradually whittled away at the lead, with Powers sinking two big three-pointers as part of her 12 second-half points. Fitchburg went cold, scoring only nine points in the last seven minutes.
Love hit 6 of 8 shots to add 13 points to the Tufts attack. The Jumbos had 50-percent shooting (14/28) in the second half with 6 of 9 from three-point territory. Miller grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for Tufts, helping the Jumbos post a 40-28 margin on the boards.
Delpero finished with 13 points for Fitchburg, which shot only 34.6 percent (9/26) in the second half. They were 1 for 9 in the second half and 4 for 18 overall from behind the arch. Junior Jen Fontaine (Dracut, MA) posted nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Falcons.
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