When sophomore Katie Nelson went down with a knee injury in her team’s loss to Dayton, Massachusetts women’s basketball coach Marnie Dacko chose not to let the point guard’s absence serve as an excuse for her team’s poor play or lack of execution. In keeping a positive face on it, her and her players chose to view it as an opportunity for other players to step up and prove themselves.

Just over two weeks later and with two more guards having joined Nelson on the bench in street clothes, the injury problems for the Minutewomen have officially become a viable excuse for their troubles.

“It just seems like they’re dropping like flies,” senior co-captain Jennifer Butler said. “It’s tough for us because we seem to be losing a new player every week.”

With junior starter Cleo Foster out until the postseason and freshman reserve Cindy Gonzalez inactive for the game and day-to-day in addition to Nelson, the Minutewomen (12-11 4-8 Atlantic 10) were forced to use a variety of lineups and combinations, none of which could lead them to victory, as they fell, 69-57, to the Richmond Lady Spiders (17-7 8-5 Atlantic 10) on Sunday afternoon.

“We’re playing a lot of kids in different positions where they haven’t really gotten a lot of playing time,” Dacko said. “I’m just forced to ask different players to do things that are really out of their comfort zone, and obviously that’s going to hurt us and it really did tonight.”

Richmond opened the game with a quick 12-4 burst, fueled by sloppy passing and poor ball handling from a UMass team with only one true guard in the starting lineup. Senior guard Cammy Desmond, along with UMass’ shaky ball control, was the catalyst for the fast start, scoring six of her game-high 20 points during the run.

“She had a great day for us,” Richmond coach Joanne Boyler said. “She carried us in the first few minutes and kept us in it the whole game.

“But we had 17 steals, and that’s how we won the game.”

The Maroon and White clawed its way back on the legs of four three pointers from four different players. It capped off an 8-0 run on the last of the flurry of threes from junior guard Judit Zsendeyni to take a 20-17 lead.

The sloppy play continued, however, as the teams traded baskets for the final 10 minutes of the half and left the Minutewomen with a slim 36-32 edge at the break.

“They weren’t doing that much,” Butler said. “It was more that we were doing it to ourselves. We weren’t taking care of the ball or being smart, and that kept us from pulling away or taking control of the game.”

UMass opened with the first two buckets of the second half to build the lead back to seven, but continuous sloppy play highlighted by several of their 22 turnovers and poor shooting from both the free-throw line (6-of-12 for the game) and from behind the three point arc (1-of-11 in the second half) again kept the Minutewomen from pulling away.

“When you outrebound teams and do the things you need to do but then get the senseless turnovers, it’s painful to watch and even more painful for me to watch,” Dacko said. “We hurt ourselves from the foul line too. You’re just not going to win ballgames when you shoot 50 percent from the line.”

Despite its struggles, the Maroon and White still found itself leading 52-48 with 8:14 remaining in the game. However, senior guard Elise Ryder sparked a 13-0 Spider run over the next 4:24 by hitting four consecutive 3-pointers to give Richmond a 61-52 lead, one it would never relinquish.

“They were packing it in on us with their zone, forcing us to hit the outside shot, and we weren’t,” Boyle said. “When Elise came in, they stayed with the same strategy and that gave her the open looks and she started knocking down shots.

“What she brought more than the 3-point shooting was the attitude of ‘hey, we’re not going to lose this game,’ and because of that both our offensive and defensive intensity picked up. She gave our kids confidence down the stretch to be able to perform better.”

While Dacko agreed that Richmond’s senior co-captain hurt the Minutewomen with her shooting, she hardly caught the first year coach off-guard.

“[Ryder] didn’t catch us by surprise,” Dacko said. “We knew she was her 3-point shooter and she still hurt us. We came out man-to-man and couldn’t stay with them…so we had to go to a zone at that opened the outside for her to hurt us.”

By the time sophomore guard Monique Govan ended a 6:27 long Maroon and White scoring drought at 1:27, it was too little to late for the Minutewomen.

“We were struggling with the different lineups we were forced to send out there tonight,” Dacko said. “We’re just not the kind of team that can dig a hole and get ourselves out of it, let alone when we have so many players sitting out.”