With 14 turnovers in the first half, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team set the tone in the second half by turning the ball over twice on its first three possessions.

“The story of our lives with turnovers. We had plus 20 again, and anytime we do we don’t win the game. It was rough,” senior forward Kate Mills said.

In a game where the Minutewomen shot well enough to win on any given night by shooting 52 percent from the field and 45 percent from three, they hurt themselves with 25 turnovers. The Minutewomen lost only their second game at home in a 72-66 loss to Saint Joseph’s on Sunday. UMass coach Marnie Dacko had a long list of things she would like to see the team improve on.

“We turned the ball over too many times, too many unforced turnovers, too many second-chance points and I’m just disappointed,” Dacko said.

Saint Joseph’s scored 29 points off of UMass turnovers and scored 11 second-chance points. Saint Joseph’s took 11 more shots than UMass and attempted 13 free throws.

The Minutewomen managed to keep a lead for most of the game by forcing 16 turnovers, but they were unable to get production from the other players. Mills finished the game with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and senior forward Pam Rosanio scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

“Pam and Kate can’t do much more for us. I think they’re giving us everything they got,” Dacko said about her leaders. “We need some other kids to step up.”

During the season, Mills and Rosanio lead the team in scoring with an average of 34 points, but they also combine for the team lead in turnovers with seven per contest. Although they are forwards, they are sometimes put in the position of point guard as they average a combined 6.4 assists per game and are expected to constantly handle the ball. Dacko was forced to play both players the entire game even though Rosanio was playing with one bad leg, and Mills not only had to shoulder the scoring load, she also had to cover 6-foot-3 freshman Sarah Acker one-on-one. If the bench had provided more, Dacko said she would like to play Mills and Rosanio about 32 minutes per game.

“Pam’s on one leg, and she’s playing harder than a lot of my players,” Dacko said. “That’s inexcusable, what we take away from [the game] is we have to play better defense.”

The rest of the team went 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) from the field. Rosanio and Mills went 7-of-8 from the foul line. The only other player to make it to the line was junior guard Sakera Young, who went 0-for-1. The bench managed eight points and gave the ball away seven times.

“I need to get more from the guards, more from [junior forward] Stefanie Gerardot, more from [freshman forward] Teya Wright, and everybody else has to step up,” Dacko said.

For the season the Minutewomen are averaging 18 turnovers and 17 assists per contest. Going forward, the Minutewomen want to turn that ratio and the season into a positive.

Steve Games can be reached at [email protected].