At the end of a close game, most Atlantic 10 teams would think the ball is going inside to either Kate Mills or Pam Rosanio, but against Fordham yesterday, Alisha Tatham had the best chance to score.

Tied at 59-59 and with only 20 seconds left, senior forward Alisha Tatham found an open lane as she drove past her defender for the go-ahead basket. With only seven seconds left and Fordham trailing by two, Tatham sealed the game with a steal at half court to give the Massachusetts women’s basketball team a 61-59 win.

“We were just trying to run the set and hopefully get it inside, but when I saw the lane I just took it,” Tatham said about the last basket.

“Alisha took the ball in with confidence, so we were all pretty happy about that because we’ve struggled with games coming down to the end,” senior forward Kate Mills said.

The Minutewomen improved their Atlantic 10 standing to (2-3) and (10-10) overall. Fordham drops to (0-21) despite a 24-point effort by freshman guard Megan Mahoney.

Fordham was trailing 51-41 with 6:44 left to play, but the Rams chipped away at the lead and cut it to one until Tatham hit a layup to push the lead to three.

“Alisha’s been hot and cold,” UMass coach Marnie Dacko said. “I took her out of the starting lineup and had a nice talk with her yesterday and on the second team she’s just performed to perfection.”

With a three-point lead, the Minutewomen quickly lost it as Fordham guard Annie Zopf scored on a three-point play to tie it at 55-55. With 1:25 left in the game, Mahoney sliced through the defense and scored the go-ahead basket.

On the next possession, UMass forward Kate Mills answered with a jump shot from the elbow to tie it at 57 apiece. With 51 seconds left, Mahoney went too aggressive to the basket as senior forward Pam Rosanio stepped in to take charge. giving UMass the ball back.

On the next possession, Mahoney made up for it by forcing a turnover from UMass junior guard Sakera Young.

“I told the kids, ‘It’s your ball, you can’t just give it away its in your hands and we have to be focused,'” Dacko said.

With Mahoney scoring at will late in the game, coach Dacko decided someone else needed to step up for Fordham. Out of a timeout the Rams tried to get the ball to Mahoney, but Tatham and Young forced her away from the ball. Zopf tried to inbound the ball, but Mills deflected the pass and the 6-foot-2 forward dribbled half the court for the go-ahead lay up.

“We knew they were going to go to [Mahoney] and we took the person off the ball a little bit and we knew we had fouls to give,” Dacko said. “Mahoney played a great game and she goes after it.”

To limit the guards, Dacko used a defensive lineup that featured freshman Teya Wright, Tatham and Young. Wright had a thunderous block with two steals and six rebounds, but was unable to take care of the ball as she had a game-high seven turnovers. Even though the Minutewomen held Fordham to 41 percent shooting, Tatham thought they could have played better.

“I think our defense was struggling and we needed to stop some of their guards and box out a little more, but I think we pulled away at the end very well,” Tatham said. “We just didn’t step up, we had a lot of defensive let downs,” Dacko said.

The Fordham guards combined for 42 of the team’s 59 points, while the UMass forwards combined for 53 points.

Mills led all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-23 shooting. She started the game going 4-of-5 from the field and then went cold mid-game but came back strong toward the end, hitting five of her last nine shots.

“I think we learned that we can’t take any team for granted in the A-10, it’s pretty close record wise and talent wise,” Mills said. “Just from here on out we have to come ready to play.”

Game Notes

The Minutewomen had 20 assists on 24 field goals for the game