In the holiday spirit, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team has made the 2001-02 campaign a season of giving. Thus far on the year, the Minutewomen have politely handed game after game to the opposition, in part by turning the ball over 25.2 times a game.
Last night, James Madison was the latest benefactor of the UMass turnover machine, taking advantage of 27 Maroon and White gifts to pull out the 56-49 victory. It was the typical Minutewoman contest, in which the team used good defense and rebounding to keep the game close before a lack of offense and numerous miscues finally caught up to it in the late going.
“The same people are making the same mistakes,” UMass coach Joanie O’Brien said. “We have kids who are scatterbrained sometimes.”
With the loss, UMass dropped to 1-4 on the year, while the Dukes used the win to improve to 4-1.
“They made shots when they needed to and we lost some of our composure,” O’Brien said about yesterday’s game. “If you can’t make your open shots and if you miss your free throws then you’re not going to win, and that has been our problem all year.”
Early on, it looked like the Maroon and White was finally conquering its offensive demons, as it rushed out to a 20-13 lead. By halftime, JMU was only able to make up one of those points, and the two teams went into the break with UMass up 24-18.
Defensively, it was a remarkable first half effort for the Minutewomen, as the Dukes had previously been averaging more than 36 points per frame.
In the second half, however, things quickly turned around, as James Madison used a 7-0 run to regain the lead.
The two quads battled it out evenly for the next few minutes, until the Dukes used a 5-0 run to take a 47-42 advantage with two minutes left. Amber Sneed and Jen Butler kept the game close down the stretch for the Maroon and White, each hitting a clutch basket to close the JMU lead to two with under a minute remaining, but when the Minutewomen were forced to foul, the Dukes hit their free throws to pull away for the seven-point win.
UMass’ junior center Butler led her team with 12 points and 13 rebounds on the night, but she did most of her damage in the first frame (eight points, 10 rebounds) and was absolutely woeful from the line (0-for-7).
“[Butler] kept us in the game with defense and rebounding,” O’Brien said. “But she has got to hit her free throws.”
Siiri Liivandi chipped in with eight points and Sneed and Nekole Smith each had seven, but overall, it was yet another tough offensive performance for the Maroon and White.
“We have to clean up our offense,” O’Brien said. “But we did do some of the things we wanted to do. In the first couple of games we weren’t running our offense correctly and now we are running it correctly, but we are missing our shots.”
The Minutewomen get a chance to stop being so generous this Sunday when they take on Vermont.
“Everyone has been struggling,” O’Brien said. “We just have to keep on fighting and see what happens.”
