So far on the season, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team has lost two completely different games.
In the first contest, the Minutewomen suffered through complete humiliation, getting blown out by Holy Cross, 68-42. Last night at the William D. Mullins Center, however, UMass looked like it had the game under control, only to watch it slip just out of reach, as St. Peter’s took home the 56-52 overtime victory.
With the loss, the Maroon and White dropped to 0-2 (0-0 Atlantic 10) on the year, with tough out-of-conference contests against Rice and Clemson looming on the horizon over Thanksgiving break.
“We played very hard,” frustrated UMass coach Joanie O’Brien said. “We just missed too many easy shots and didn’t do a lot of little things. When you don’t make your free throws (6-for-13) and when you turn the ball over (25 times on the night), you’re not going to win.
“We were rattled,” the eleventh-year coach added. “The team is still learning how to compose itself.”
At the 9:24 mark of the second half, freshman point guard Katie Nelson fired a nifty pass to Nekole Smith in the lane for the bucket and the foul. This gave the Minutewomen a 40-31 lead, and at this point it looked like they would be able to get into the win column.
From that point on, however, freshman forward Tyiana Sears took the game over for the Peahens, with nine of her team-high 13 points coming over the final eight minutes.
“We had a couple of breakdowns on defense,” O’Brien said. “And that Spears kid hit a couple of big shots. You have got to give her credit – she’s a freshman and she wasn’t afraid to step up.”
A Sears bank shot gave St. Peter’s the 47-45 lead with only 31 seconds left, but UMass center Jen Butler was able to answer with only 10.6 ticks on the clock, backing down her defender and drilling the right-handed layup to send the game into OT.
Butler was solid all night for the Maroon and White, despite missing a few easy shots down the stretch, totaling 18 points and nine rebounds.
“We set out to try and stop Butler by doubling down low,” Peahen coach Mike Granelli said. “But we weren’t overly effective.”
In the extra session, the Minutewomen took a short-lived lead on a Cleo Foster 17-foot jump shot from the right wing, but Felicia Harris was able to answer for St. Peter’s with a hard drive to the hoop. It was only Harris’ third field goal of the night, however, as the normally reliable scorer struggled to a 3-for-15 shooting performance for a mere six points.
The Peahens took the lead for good when Sue Porter hit a pair from the line with 2:22 remaining, and from that point on, UMass would fail to score for the rest of the contest.
Down by three with seven seconds left, the Maroon and White watched its last hopes slip away when a Nelson three rimmed out.
Midway through the first frame, the Minutewomen fell behind 20-14 after a Harris score. From that point on, though, the Peahens would not score for the next 8:34, and would watch as UMass used a 10-0 run over that stretch to turn the game around.
At the half, the teams went into the locker room with the score 24-22 in the Maroon and White’s favor.
“We knew we had to come out and make a run,” UMass forward Amber Sneed said, who totaled 12 points on the night. “We just couldn’t sit back on our heels.”
Throughout the contest, both teams struggled offensively, as St. Peter’s could only manage a paltry 36.1 shooting percentage. In contrast, the Minutewomen shot the ball better (42 percent), but killed themselves by committing 25 turnovers for the second straight game.
It was an improvement over the Holy Cross debacle, though, and O’Brien felt that her team could get to where it wants to be if only a few corrections are made.
“We need to improve our shot selection and handling the basketball,” she said. “And obviously our free throw shooting. Once these things happen, it will mend everything.”
UMass next gets the chance to turn things around on Friday night against Rice at the Mullins Center.
