There are bad days, there are really bad days and then there’s the day the Massachusetts women’s basketball team had Sunday at Mullins Center.
UMass allowed a school-record 105 points in a 105-61 blowout loss against Central Michigan in its second game of the season. The previous record was set in 1987 when the Minutewomen lost to Holy Cross 102-87.
The Chippewa’s (1-0) came into this season as the unanimous pre-season favorite to win the Mid-American Conference and proved why in this game. Central Michigan had six players score in double figures including a game-high 20 from guard Niki DiGulio.
“I was pretty disappointed with not only the result but the way we played,” UMass coach Sharon Dawley. “We were out-rebounded 62-33 and sent Central [Michigan] to the foul line 37 times.”
Coming into the season, coaches were informed by the NCAA that officials would be calling more hand-check fouls. And Sunday was a prime example of that.
UMass (0-2) was called for 32 team fouls for the game, many of them being reach-ins and blocking fouls that slowed down the pace to the game. Dawley was noticeablly frustrated with some of the calls during the game. But refrained from commenting on the officiating afterwards.
Nola Henry once again emerged as the main offensive weapon for the Minutewomen, scoring 16 points and going 9-for-10 from the free throw line. After Friday’s game Dawley wanted Henry to be more aggressive attacking the defense and she did just that Sunday.
“When I get myself going I feel like my teammates feed off of that,” Henry said. “And if other teammates get going then I can feed off of that.”
Unfortunately for UMass, no one else fed off of Henry’s game.
As a team UMass shot just 18-for-65 from the field and 2-for-20 from the 3-point line. Central Michigan switched off between 2-3 and 3-2 zone defenses to shut down the Minutewomen shooters. Emily Mital, the teams leading 3-point shooter from a year ago, went just 1-for-6 from behind the 3-point line, while Jasmine Harris went 0-for-7.
Central Michigan did all of this without its best player, Crystal Bradford, for an undisclosed reason. Bradford was named to the pre-season all MAC team after an impressive performance in last year’s post season.
Kymber Hill played well for UMass off the bench, scoring 13 points and 5 rebounds in her 22 minutes played. Hill, similar to Henry, converted most of her points from the free-throw line going 7-for -8.
The Minutewomen don’t play again until Nov. 17 when they go on the road to play American University. This gives UMass a full week to go back to the drawing board and get on the right track.
“This week is going to be basic boot-camp,” Dawley said. “It’s also a great time to re-asses our starting line-up and who plays well together. It’s a perfect time to have multiple days of practice to see who works well together and what combination works best.”
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
