The men’s basketball team had a pivotal pair of games over the weekend, playing host to Tufts on Friday night and then Bates on Saturday afternoon. Although Friday night’s game was a close loss, the Cardinals rebounded Saturday with a win in another nail-biter.

Tufts came into Friday’s game with an 8-10 record, but that included one 0-4 NESCAC showing. Both teams started slow, with each playing great defense that forced the other to turn the ball over and miss shots. Neither team scored for the first two and a half minutes of the game, until Jon Sargent ’09 drove inside for a lay-up. After that, the Cards continued to assert themselves not only on defense but offense as well. For the first nine minutes of the game, the Jumbos scored only 11 points.

There was, however, one scary moment near the beginning of the first half: Tufts center Tom Selby emerged from a loose ball pileup yelling and clutching his knee, in what looked like a great deal of pain. He left the game, but it was soon apparent that the injury was not serious when he reentered the contest later in the half.

The rest of the half was close. Wes guard Kevin Scura ’09 made Tufts pay for trying to press him by driving and making lay-ups, and he only missed one of his six first-half shots.

With three seconds left in the half, Tufts made a short jump shot and assumed the half was over. But Cardinal center Gabe Gonzalez-Kreisberg ’09 was alert and threw the inbounds pass in to Sargent, who was wide open at half court. As the buzzer sounded, Sargent’s 40-foot heave banked off the glass and in, giving the Cards a 40-36 halftime lead and a good dose of momentum.

In the second half, however, the action was back and forth until Tufts took a 53-51 lead with 14 minutes left on a three-point play by preseason Division III All-American Jon Pierce. Although Wes kept it close, Pierce asserted himself as the game wore on, and he finished with 25 points.

A pair of three pointers in the last two minutes, by Gonzalez-Kreisberg and Jason Mendell ’12, who scored a team-high 21, cut the Tufts lead down to one. Both shots ignited the raucous Friday night crowd, and with 10 seconds left, Stan Grayson ’09 appeared—in the eyes of many Cardinal fans—to make a lay-up that would have given Wes the lead, sending the crowd into a frenzy. But a traveling call negated the basket, and gave Tufts back the ball with a one-point lead at 79-78.

Tufts had a hard time putting it away as the Jumbos missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-ones from the line. But Wes could not capitalize on these errors, as Tufts players got the first two offensive rebounds. Scura grabbed the third missed free throw, drove the length of the court and shot a desperate three pointer from the corner. Gonzalez-Kreisberg had a good shot at putting it back in, but his would-be game winner fell just short as time expired, and Tufts left with the 79-78 win. The Cardinals exited the court dejected as the Jumbos celebrated.

“In the Tufts game, we felt like we were one or two plays away from pulling out the ‘W,’ but it’s a bottom line business and we did not get the job done in 40 minutes,” Mendell said.

The next day, however, the Cardinals rebounded well. It took a little while, but they looked energetic despite their loss the day before. Bates entered the game with a better record than Tufts, at 11-8 overall and 2-3 in the NESCAC.

Bates started quickly, taking a 6-0 lead on three inside baskets by forward Alex Gallant. Wesleyan frequently turned the ball over due to Bates’ frenetic defense, but the Cards finally scored a basket on a pass inside from Dave Maltz ’11 to Gonzalez-Kreisberg, who put in the lay-up to make it 6-2 Bates.

Then Bates went on a 7-0 run, and Wes coach Joe Reilly was forced to take a timeout as the Cardinals had fallen behind 13-2. At that point, the Cardinal’s demonstrated a character they seem to have developed over the course of this season: instead of giving up, they went to work.

After a 16-7 run, Bates’ lead was only 20-18 and the Bobcats were the ones forced to take a timeout. Wes’ run continued, with Michael Battle ’11 tying the game at 20-20 on a lay-up and Grayson giving Wesleyan the lead at 25-24 with two minutes left in the half on an acrobatic, twisting, reverse lay-up. At halftime, the Cards were only down two, 27-25. The first half had been a defensive struggle: between the two teams, they missed almost 50 shots from the field and turned the ball over more than 20 times. Bates’ shooting percentage was 8 percent higher than Wes’ in the first half, but the Cards’ performance at the free-throw line, where they went 7-7, kept them in it.

As the second half began, Gonzalez-Kreisberg, Grayson, and Maltz exploited their distinct size advantages inside, displaying an impressive array of hook shots, blocks, put backs, and rebounds. The game stayed close, as the two teams traded baskets. Twice, Bates took a four-point lead, only to have Gonzalez-Kreisberg slash it to one on a three-pointer, showing again his improved shooting range. Wes finally took the lead on a three-point play, a nifty spin move by Grayson that drew a foul from a confused Bates defender. With a minute remaining, the score was 61-60 Cardinals.

Solid defense by the Cards forced Bates into a difficult turnaround jumper as the shot clock was winding down, and Grayson grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made both free throws to extend the lead to 63-60.

After Bates guard Chris Wilson was fouled and made one of two free throws, Gonzalez-Kreisberg got the rebound and a foul was called on Bates, sending Bates coach Jon Furbush into a tizzy. Gonzalez-Kreisberg made one of two free throws, but Wilson missed a game-tying three and Grayson grabbed the rebound yet again.

It wasn’t quite over, however. Both of Grayson’s free throws were short, giving Bates another chance to tie. But the Cardinals’ defense rose to the occasion, refusing to let Bates get a shot off, and Wilson stepped out of bounds as time expired.

The win was a nice turn around from the game the Cardinals had lost less than 24 hours earlier. Mendell scored 11 points, but the scoring was more evenly distributed than it had been the previous day.

“The game against Bates was huge for our NESCAC Tournament chances, and Stan and Gabe showed some great senior leadership to spark our comeback late in the game,” Mendell said.

The win was especially satisfying for Reilly, who had been Bates’ head coach for the last 11 years.

“Coach Reilly has been phenomenal this year, and we really wanted to win that one for him,” Mendell said.