CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Trailing by six points with three and a half minutes to play, visiting Tufts University outscored the MIT men's basketball team 16-3 over the remainder of regulation to earn a hard-fought 74-67 victory over the Engineers on Tuesday night at Rockwell Cage.

THE BASICS:   

• Score: Tufts 74, MIT 67 
• Records: Tufts 4-2 Overall, MIT 4-3 Overall  

HOW IT HAPPENED:    

• Neither side led by more than single digits throughout the evening in a back-and-forth contest that featured six lead changes and six tie scores. 
• The Engineers held the advantage for much of the first half, as an early Tufts lead was erased by a Rome Delgado-Gonzalez three at 16:42 that tied the contest at 5-all.  
• Tufts would tie the game again at 7-7 but MIT held the lead from 13:45 mark of the first half until 4:27 when a layup from James Morakis put the Jumbos ahead, 22-21, for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. 
• The teams exchanged the lead a pair of time over the final four minutes of the first, but Michael Zhang's layup in transition with 18 seconds left before halftime put MIT up, 30-29, at the break. 
• MIT stretched its lead to five in the early stages of the second half but, much like the first half, could not distance itself from the Jumbos.  
• The Engineers' largest lead of the second half came at 15:40 when a Wyatt Mowery jumper put MIT up by eight, 41-33.  
• Tufts continued to chip away at the lead over the next 12 minutes of play, tying the score at 41-all, 43-all and 46-all, but could not rally past the Engineers, as MIT took advantage of its free throws in a second half that saw both teams reach the double bonus.
• With MIT leading by six following a pair of Jackson Weiland free throws at 3:36, Tufts used a 7-0 run capped by a Jon Medley layup to take the lead back with 2:09 left to play, 65-64. 
• Mowery hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 65-65 at 2:08 but a Scott Gyimesi layup and-one on ensuing possession shifted the momentum and the score in favor of the visitors.  
• Gyimesi's three-point play put Tufts ahead 68-65 and the Jumbos did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game, using a 16-3 run to eventually build a seven-point lead when Medley made two free throws in the closing seconds to give the game its 74-67 final.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Mowery dropped in a game-high 20 points, including a pair of big three pointers in the second half. 
• Delgado-Gonzalez finished one rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards and 11 points. 
• Will Bland was electric off the MIT bench, scoring nine points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out five assists, including a no-look pass to set-up a Merlin Gogolin dunk in the first half.
• Medley had a team-high 19 points for Tufts, shooting 7-of-12 from the floor.  
• Gyimesi was everywhere for the visitors, pulling down 18 rebounds and scoring 12 points, including the 1,000th point of his Tufts career. 

UP NEXT:

• MIT returns to Rockwell Cage following the Thanksgiving holiday for a 12:30 PM contest on Saturday versus Bowdoin.  

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