CLINTON, N.Y. – Tufts University's Joshua Bernstein and Scott Gyimesi combined for 45 points and the Jumbos recorded a 102-71 NESCAC win over the Hamilton College Continentals on Hamilton's Coach Tom Murphy Court inside Margaret Bundy Scott Field House on Saturday, Feb. 7.

Season Update

• Hamilton (5-17, 1-7 NESCAC) played its final home game of the regular season.
• Tufts (18-4, 7-2 NESCAC), which is ranked No. 9 in the most recent D3hoop.com Top 25 poll, bounced back from a 65-62 setback at Amherst College on Friday, Feb. 6.

 

How It Happened

• Hamilton got off to strong start against the Jumbos. Max Freishtat '26, making his first career start, knocked down his first two 3-point attempts to give the Continentals a 6-4 lead with 17:03 left. After a layup from Tufts' James Morakis with 15:47 left cut Hamilton's lead to 10-8, the Continentals went on an 8-0 run, capped by five straight points from Garret Keyhani '26, for an 18-8 lead at the 12:34 mark.
• Hamilton took its largest lead of 12 at 30-18 with 8:26 remaining following a 3-pointer by Keyhani and a free throw by Jalen Reese '27.
• Tufts scored six straight over the next 1:34 of game action to cut its deficit in half. Gyimesi delivered a 3-pointer and a jumper on back-to-back possessions to make it 34-31 with 4:27 remaining, then Evan O'Reilly '29 drove into the paint and sank a floater at the other end to push the Hamilton lead back to five.
• A free throw by Reese with 2:45 remaining made it 39-36 in favor of the Continentals, but the Jumbos closed the half on a 12-0 run for a 48-39 lead at the intermission.
• The Jumbos shot a blistering 62.9% in the second half, going 22-of-35 from the field, including 7-of-11 from 3-point range.
• David Melson '29 banked in a floater in the lane off a feed from Reese with 17:45 left to make it 52-43 in favor of the Jumbos. Tufts scored the next five points with a triple from Gyimesi and a layup from Bernstein, and the Jumbos maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest.
• Hamilton cut its deficit to 11 with 12:48 remaining following a jumper from Melson, and again at the 11:39 mark following a 3-pointer from O'Reilly. Tufts answered O'Reilly's triple with five straight points for a 72-56 lead with 10:08 remaining. Tufts scored three straight 2-point field goals in just over a minute to establish a 78-58 lead with 7:58 left.
• Freishtat sank his third 3-pointer of the contest with 7:45 left, then recorded a steal, drew a foul and sank two free throws one minute later to make it 80-63.
• Tufts then went on a 9-0 run to build an 89-63 lead with 4:49 left.  Deacon Baratta scored the final points of the game on a 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining to give Tufts its largest lead of 31 at 102-71.

Notes

• Keyhani recorded his third 20-point game of the season and grabbed nine rebounds.
• Freishtat set new career highs with three 3-pointers, four made free throws and 13 points.
• O'Reilly registered his fourth straight game in double figures with 11 points.
• Reese added seven points, nine rebounds and four assists.
• Bernstein finished with a team-high 23 points on 11-of-13 from the field for the Jumbos, while Gyimesi provided a double-double with 22 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
• Tufts' Ricardo Nieves went 7-of-7 from the line and finished with 13 points, five assists and two steals off the bench, while Jon Medley added six assists and three steals.
• Tufts shot 38-of-67 (56.7%) from the field and 10-of-19 (52.6%) from 3-point range.

 

Next Game

Hamilton has two road games remaining on its regular season schedule. The Continentals will return to action at Williams College (11-11, 0-8 NESCAC) on Friday, Feb. 13.