As we’ve written before, Tufts’ defense is better than the sum of its parts and its parts are pretty darn good. All-American Michela North has great length and great timing so that she’s seldom caught out of position when an opposing forward makes her move to the basket. North is exceptionally good at using her length, strength and body positioning to deny the entry past to the post, which means the opposing forward often doesn't even have a chance to start that move to the basket.

Trying to stop (or at least slow down) Thomas More Tufts will get its chance to try to stop three-time player of the year Sydney Moss and the Thomas More offensive juggernaut on Monday night. Before that happens, we asked three coaches of great defensive teams how they'd prepare for that task. Anthony Ewing, University of New England "With a player like Sydney Moss, I don't believe you put your whole defensive focus into shutting her down, because you're not going to.  I believe you can do one of two things, effort to make her work extremely hard to get what she invariably gets most night anyway and hope by late in the game she doesn't have much left, or play your normal defense on her, and effort to limit everyone else.  The issue with Thomas More is those complimentary players are more than just complimentary players, they are skilled and can hurt you in lots of different ways.  That's the problem with picking your poison, either way you're drinking poison!"  Janice Luck, Albright College At Albright we faced a few All-Americans this year in Sarah Tarbert from Stevenson, Alexis Wright from Moravian, Ali Doswell from Amherst and of course Michela North from Tufts.   Everyone on the floor needs to know their job, it can't be just the defender that is matched up with the All-American.  Guards need to pressure the ball if we are trying to keep it away from the post.  Help side needs to be ready if we are looking to double or add inside pressure.  It all depends on the player, but all five people on the floor have to be working together.  It is difficult to completely shut down an all American, so we focus on keeping that player below her average.  If they truly are that good, they will be able to get close, but good team defense can help contain their stats. Trevor Woodruff, University of Scranton "The goal with Sydney would be to slow her down, knowing that stopping her completely is unlikely.  We would try to throw different things at her to try and keep her from getting too comfortable.  We'd change defenders, pick up points and definitely double team her in the post.  The additional issue is that the other players are also very good."

Guards Emma Roberson, Josie Lee and Lauren Dillon are what Berube calls the first line of defense. They are quick enough to stay in front of most opposing guards and strong enough to run smaller guards out of the spots they want to be. Roberson is particularly good at anticipating back-door passes and intercepting them. And then there’s Baptista. At six-foot, she’s capable of matching up with forwards or large guards and uses her wing span to block some shots and alter others. In one key stretch against Scranton, she hit a three-pointer, stepped into the passing lane to steal the ball on Scranton’s next possession and coasted in for an uncontested layup that put the game out of stretch.

Scranton head coach Trevor Woodruff, whose team also plays very good defense, called Tufts “the best defense we saw all season.  Their overall size for position was excellent and their athleticism was much better than I thought going into the game.  Baptista being able to guard both inside and out at her size is a big benefit.”

In the Jumbos’ 48 quarters against NCAA tournament teams only twice has a team scored 20 points or more. Bowdoin did it back on December 5 when the Polar Bears tallied 26 points in the second quarter of Tufts’ worst game of the season. And Wartburg scored 20 points in the third quarter to claw its way back into the national semifinal game.

Like Scranton did in the sectional final, Wartburg fought its way back into the game. Tufts’ offense is usually not explosive enough that they will blow quality opponents away. Scranton pulled even with Tufts with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter and Wartburg got within four at the same point in the national semifinal.

In both cases Berube called a 30-second time out so her team could regroup for the final push and they responded by scoring on their first possession out of the break and finishing the game on a decisive run. But offense wasn’t Tufts’ focus during those pivotal breaks. When asked what she told her players in that late timeout against Wartburg, Berube responded “I think I said the same sort of thing (as in the Scranton game). Let’s get some defensive stops here. It’s been too easy for them the last couple minutes and that’ll fuel our offense.”

In a way Tufts’ offense also fuels its defense. Albright head coach Janice Luck explains: “The other aspect that makes their defense so good is their patience on offense.  They limit possessions for opposing teams when they control the tempo of the game.” Teams that want to push tempo against the Jumbos find it is as hard as playing tug-of-war with an elephant.

In Monday’s championship game the team on the other end of the rope will be the defending national champions Thomas More, which is not only undefeated but practically unparalleled on offense. The Saints are ranked second in the country in scoring at 92.2 points per game, trailing only run-and-gun North Central (Ill.) which averaged 94.7 points per game without any NCAA tournament games to deflate its average.

More than that, though, Thomas More is incredibly efficient. The Saints lead Division III women’s basketball with 722 assists and a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. The next closest team (Washington U.) has a 1.33 ratio, about a third lower than Thomas More.

And of course Thomas More has three-time national player of the year Sydney Moss who had a season like none other in Division III women’s basketball history last year. The Saints also have All-American point guard Abby Owings and All-Region forward Nikki Kiernan, who are a year older and wiser than they were when the Saints beat Tufts 62-52 in the national semifinal last year.

In that game Tufts dictated tempo and mostly held the Saints' offense in check. Thomas More’s starting back court shot 4-for-15 and as a team the Saints shot only 35 percent with 17 turnovers. But Owings press-breaking speed and Moss’ all-around excellence were too much to overcome.

On Monday night Tufts will have another chance to add one more stellar defensive performance to its resume and a national championship plaque to its trophy case.