The Massachusetts women’s basketball team has struggled on the boards lately, getting thoroughly outrebounded by its opponents in its last two contests.

After suffering a rebound differential of 50-31 and giving up 20 second-chance points in Saturday’s loss to Fordham, the Minutewomen struggled on the boards again on Wednesday. George Washington pulled down 60 rebounds compared to UMass’ 35 and scored 26 second-chance points on its way to an 89-76 victory.

“We need to do a better job boxing out,” Minutewomen coach Sharon Dawley said. “The boxing out differential was huge. You look at that number, knowing that we gave up 26 second-chance points to GW, it’s amazing that we were down 13.”

One key rebounder that UMass was missing down the stretch against the Colonials was Kim Pierre-Louis. The junior forward was leading the team in points (eight) and rebounds (five) at the end of the first half, but only got one more rebound and didn’t make another basket before fouling out of the game with 12:06 left to play.

“We like her off the bench, so we can keep her calmer so we don’t foul her out,” Dawley said. “So, we’ve got to be on top of Kim. She gets her third, ‘Hey, don’t do anything risky,’ that kind of thing.”

Another of the team’s bigger players that was missing from the game was Paula Tarnachowicz. The junior injured her ankle in last Wednesday’s game against Dayton, a game in which she pulled down seven rebounds, and she has therefore missed the past two games.

Dawley wasn’t sure how many minutes Tarnohowicz would’ve played on Wednesday had she been healthy, but she was sure Tarnohowicz would’ve made a difference.

“Having Paula to go to today would’ve been a nice thing,” she said. “Paula rebounds, and Paula gives us effort, and Paula’s willing to throw some elbows around, and you need players like that.”

Tarnachowicz’ status remains day-to-day. Dawley couldn’t say when she would return, but said that her status has been improving.

“It’s tough with a sprain like that,” she said. “But she’s way ahead of where I would’ve guessed a week ago.”

“A tale of two halves”

The Minutewomen once again found themselves down by a large margin at the end of the first half on Wednesday, trailing George Washington 51-30. The team turned things around in the second half, outscoring the Colonials 46-38, but couldn’t close the gap from the first half.

Dawley said the game was really a “tale of two halves,” and said that the team needs to come out at the beginning of the game and play as aggressively as they did in the second half.

UMass has typically done better in the second half, averaging about 34 points after the break while only averaging about 27 points in the first half. But Dawley said this game was different.

“I don’t think the season’s been like it was today,” she said. “Today, what I meant was I thought we played a phenomenal second half and a slow first half. I don’t necessarily think the season has looked like that.

“I think if we went with the group we did in the second half, and Kim was able to stay on the floor longer, then we have this win.”

Jesse Mayfield-Sheehan can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter @jgms88.