Last week, senior forward Kate Mills added her fourth player of the week honor in the Atlantic 10. Mills averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals per game.

Mills led the Minutewomen to a 1-1 record last week as they beat Fordham on Jan. 30 in the closing seconds, 61-59. Mills scored 26 points while adding four assists. In a 72-66 loss to Saint Joseph’s, Mills recorded a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Mills has also increased her range this season by hitting 41 percent of her 3-point attempts. UMass coach Marnie Dacko said Mills is by far the best player she’s ever coached.

“She has the ability, she’s coachable and she’s just coming into her own with confidence,” Dacko said about Mills. “You wish kids have five years because once they have it going it’s a little too late then they’re graduating and out the door. When they finally get their confidence, they understand what a coach wants they’re walking out.”

Even though Mills has put together great numbers this season, there are still things Dacko would like to see her improve on before the season ends.

“I would still like her to attack more on offense, I would still like her to be a stronger rebounder [and] I’d still like her to take care of the ball when she has it,” Dacko said. “But I think she has given us everything she can and she’s still growing. I can say that with the few games remaining on our schedule she’s still getting better.”

Point guard situation

With sophomore point guard Kim Benton out with an injury, guard depth for the Minutewomen is slim. Backup and former starter Sakera Young can fill the role as full-time starter, as she has averaged 3.9 assists during Atlantic 10 play.

Young has a different style than Benton. Benton is an outside shooting threat while Young is a player that drives to the basket looking for the open player and sometimes shooting a pull up jumper inside the paint.

When Young is out of the game and Benton is hurt, Dacko has no more options at point guard. When Young was in foul trouble against Rhode Island, Dacko was forced to use a combination of senior forward Pam Rosanio and junior forward Stefanie Gerardot.

Sophomore guard Diatiema Hill could have helped the team as a third point guard but has been out this season recovering from a torn ACL.

“Sakera didn’t help herself, I think initially when she was in I thought she forced some passes,” Dacko said about Young’s performance against URI.

Road woes

The loss at URI gave UMass a 2-9 record overall away from the Mullins Center. The Minutewomen have been great at home, sporting a 9-2 overall record. At home they are averaging 72 points per game, while on the road they only average 58.9.

At the Mullins Center, they have compiled two record-scoring nights this season. They scored 91 against URI back on Jan. 11 and two weeks later tied the mark by scoring 91 against Yale.

“We know how tough it is to play on the road, we haven’t been a great road team,” Dacko said at practice before the URI game.

Turnovers trouble

Though the Minutewomen cut down on their turnovers (12) in their 66-63 Feb. 6 win over La Salle, they reverted back to turning the ball over heavily against Rhode Island this past Saturday.

UMass committed 20 turnovers in the 75-64 road loss, with 11 coming from its two best players – Mills and Rosanio. The former had four turnovers while the latter committed seven.

Dacko was unpleased that both seniors and leading scorers led the team in turnovers. When these two players commit 11 turnovers it becomes difficult for the team to win, but the statistic can be deceiving because the ball is so often in the pairs’ hands.

Rosanio leads the team with four turnovers a game but is also second in assists with 3.4 per game, while Mills is second in turnovers with three per contest but also averages 3.1 assists, good for third on the team.

The Minutewomen remain one of the most unselfish teams in the country, as is evidenced by their conference-leading 17.3 assists per game. They also lead the conference in field-goal percentage (44.8 percent)

However, they also average 18.3 turnovers per game and this limits the amount of shots they’re able to take.

URI also committed 18 turnovers in the win against UMass, so shot attempts were virtually equal in the game. In the game against St. Joseph’s on Feb. 3, the high turnover rate came back to hurt the Minutewomen.

The Hawks turned it over 16 times, but didn’t near the total of the Minutewomen (25). Due to this turnover disparity, St. Joe’s took 11 more shots and won the game by six points, despite shooting nine percent less from the field than UMass.

Steve Games and Mike Connors can be reached at [email protected].