#1 Tufts (19-6, 8-2) vs. #4 Trinity (17-8, 6-4), 5pm, Medford, MA
Overview
Tufts heads into this match off the heels of a comfortable 83-66 quarterfinal victory over Hamilton that saw four starters reach double figures. Led by veteran guard Eric Savage’s 20 points, the Jumbos blazed out of the gate with a 14-3 run to start the game and never looked back, knocking down 58% of their shots in the process. The regular season NESCAC champions put together as well-rounded of a first half performance as they have had all season (despite turning the ball over eleven times), shooting 64% from the field and stifling the opposition to the tune of just 32.3% and 2-14 from behind the arc. Keeping their foot on the gas, the Jumbos extended their lead as far as 24 points, taking a commanding 64-40 lead with twelve minutes remaining.
The Bantams have had quite the puzzling season, needing overtime to defeat lowly Conn College while beating the likes of Middlebury, Williams and Amherst to claim the tournament’s fourth seed. Despite having the seeding advantage over the Panthers, not many people would have expected Trinity to take down the nation’s 19th-ranked squad, and yet they not only did so for the second time this season, but the boys in blue and yellow did so in convincing fashion. The offense has been quite sporadic, but the Bantams reached the century mark for the fifth time in 2020, becoming the first team to hang 100 on the Panthers this season. Shooting a sizzling 56.5% from the field, Trinity took a twelve-point lead with Colin Donovan’s jumper with just over three minutes remaining in the first half; from that point onward, the Bantams never let the lead dwindle below a dozen, splatting six threes and converting twenty of their twenty-seven field goals in the second half.
Tufts X-Factor
Luke Rogers ‘21 (16.2 PPG, 11.9 REB/G, 56.8% FG, 45.9% FT)
Rogers is undoubtedly (and literally) the centerpiece of this squad, tallying eight double-doubles in ten NESCAC games thus far. The Player of the Year candidate led the ‘CAC with 11.9 rebounds per game and was fifth in scoring, averaging 16.2 points per contest. He had what would be perceived by his standards as a quieter effort in the quarterfinals against Hamilton, finishing with fourteen points and six boards; however, there is no doubt that his size and skill set in the low post attracts a multitude of helpside defenders, giving the rest of the team open lanes to drive and shots to knock down. In their emphatic, 30-point victory over the Bantams back in early February, the junior tallied sixteen points (6-11 shooting) and six boards in just 23 minutes. Rogers and the rest of the Jumbos know this semifinal game won’t be as easy as their regular season meeting, and he’ll have to be on his A-game in order to walk out of Cousens Gymnasium with a win. One area he’ll have to improve on is his free throw percentage: over his past four games, Rogers is shooting an abysmal 32% from the charity stripe. The big fella was not exactly phenomenal at shooting free throws to begin with, but Trinity will know this and use every chance they have to send Rogers to the line instead of giving up an easy bucket (or maybe even implement a hack-a-Rogers strategy).
Trinity X-Factor
Colin Donovan ‘21 (14 PPG, 3.9 REB/G, 3.3 AST/G, 43.5% 3PT)
Trinity is relatively well-rounded in the scoring department, but Donovan is one of the more pure shooters on this team and will certainly need to score aplenty Saturday afternoon in Medford. The junior rounds out the top-ten scorers in the NESCAC with 16.4 PPG and attempts around six threes per contest. He’s scored fifteen plus in each of his last four games, including dropping 24 on Amherst. Against Tufts in the previous matchup, however, Donovan was uncharacteristically shut down, failing to register a single point in seventeen minutes of action. We here at Nothing But NESCAC certainly don’t expect the same result this time around, but for Trinity to win this game, Donovan will have to take over this game and eclipse 20+ points. He’s certainly capable of doing so (reaching that mark on six occasions to date) and Donovan has had games where he can run up the numbers in the rebounding and assists department(s). Trinity will surely need him to have one of his best performances of the entire season in order to have a real shot at knocking off the Jumbos.
Final Thoughts
This game is especially perplexing because of how volatile the Bantams have been this season. Just in February alone, Trinity has played six games and only one of them was decided by single digits. The other five? Three victories by an average of (approximately) 20 points, and two defeats by an average of 24.5 points. The Jumbos entered conference play on the back end of two consecutive defeats, causing people to question if this team reached its peak too early in the season. Any such concerns were quelled after cruising past the Continentals, and now get the privilege of hosting a team that they embarrassed just a few weeks ago. At 17-8, Trinity probably needs a win against Tufts to join the conversation in securing an at-large bit to the NCAA Tournament and bolster their resume (although a sweep of Middlebury and a road win against Amherst looks pretty darn good). Tufts, despite dropping out of the top 25 rankings, should still be firmly locked into postseason play regardless of Saturday’s result.
Despite both defenses ranking in the top three in terms of defensive field goal percentage within the NESCAC, I expect both offenses to have their fair share of points in this one. The Jumbos know they have the size advantage with Rogers down low and should allow him to pound away and kick the ball out to open shooters. Furthermore, the Bantams allow over 81 PPG despite holding opponents to under 42% from the field, and a large part of that dilemma has to do with the fact that Trinity is ninth in terms of turnovers (13.4 per game). Nonetheless, the Bantams will be confident coming off such a strong performance against the NESCAC’s highest-ranked team in the national polls. In a tight first half where Trinity does just enough to keep the game within distance, give me Tufts to make a run in the last quarter of the game and hold off the boys from Hartford.
Writer’s Pick: Tufts 86 – Trinity 74