The win halted a five-game losing streak that had been the Jumbos’ longest since February 1999. Tufts (3-8, 1-0) got a strong effort from senior co-captain Deyvehn East (Greenfield, MA), who scored 17 points (14 in the first half) with nine rebounds and four assists. A young Connecticut College team, featuring 10 freshmen on a 15-man roster, dropped to 4-8 and 0-1. Freshman guards Jahkeen Washington (New York, NY) and Malik Brown (New York, NY) led the Camels with 13 points apiece.
Tufts led 37-31 at the half and scored the first four points of the second half to lead by 10, 41-31, on a jumper by Armstrong at 18:58. Connecticut College soon started to chip away at the lead. They were within one at 49-48 when Washington hit a jumper at the 14:00 mark. Then a three-pointer by Washington, who scored 12 points in the second half, tied the score at 57-57 with 8:11 to play in regulation. The Camels used a 26-16 run over a 10-minute span to tie the score.
The Jumbos then took control of the game by scoring 10 straight points as Connecticut College went cold, missing eight straight shots. Tufts led 67-57 on a jumper by Armstrong with 2:36 on the clock. Tufts appeared to have a comfortable lead at 71-61 on another Armstrong jumper at 1:11, but the Camels scored the next six points and trailed by just four, 71-67, on a three-pointer by freshman guard Derek Kelly (Oceanport, NJ) with 30 seconds to play.
East sealed the win for Tufts with three free throws and a blocked shot during a sequence of play with 20 seconds to go. The block was rebounded by senior co-captain Eric Mack (Fall River, MA), who was fouled and hit two freebies with nine seconds left to put Tufts up 76-67.
The Jumbos hit 51.6 percent (16/31) of their shots in the second half and finished at 47.8 (32/67) for the game. Armstrong was good on 12 of 17 field goal attempts. Tufts also posted a huge 47-26 margin in rebounds, led by 10 from sophomore center Blaine Lay (Rockville, MD).
The Camels were hurt by the second-half cold spell after they worked to tie the score. Washington finished 6 of 8 from the floor and had six assists. The visitors, who fell to 1-5 in road games, also got 10 points from Kelly.
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