Senior Kate Mills led the Massachusetts women’s basketball team with 24 points, but it wasn’t enough. Twenty turnovers cost the Minutewomen an attempt to go above .500, losing 75-64 to Rhode Island.
UMass (11-12, 3-5 Atlantic 10) failed to win consecutive road games for the first time this season. With junior point guard Kim Benton out with an injury, UMass coach Marnie Dacko only had the use of one point guard, junior Sakera Young. Young got in early foul trouble and Dacko was forced to use a combination of junior forward Stefanie Gerardot and senior forward Pam Rosanio. Rosanio struggled facilitating the ball, as she turned it over seven times.
“Every one of our turnovers turned into two points for them, they scored 20 points off turnovers,” Dacko said. “It was one of the poorest rebounding efforts of the season.”
Mills was the only player who scored in double figures. She shot 9-of-16 from the field and grabbed five rebounds. To give the Minutewomen the best chance to win, Dacko played Mills and Rosanio the entire game. The Minutewomen led by as many as five midway through the first half, but URI used an 11-3 run to close the half.
The Minutewomen had trouble figuring out the defensive pressure from Rhode Island, who played a stifling 1-3-1 half-court press. UMass had 12 turnovers in the first half, and Dacko was disappointed that the point guards kept finding themselves in bad places on the court.
“There were openings all over, [but] we never found them. We dribbled in the trap,” Dacko said. “A 1-3-1 you should kill – we would dribble over half-court on the sideline and get trapped.”
Young not only struggled to find the open players, but she struggled to stay on the floor. She played 21 minutes before fouling out with 8:06 remaining in the second half. With Benton out, Dacko would have liked to have played Young around 30 minutes.
Rhode Island (11-12, 4-4 A-10) was led by a trio of scoring guards who combined for 52 points. URI shot a season-high 55 percent; senior Safi Mojidi scored 18, junior Amanda McGrew scored 17 – including 3-of-4 from three – and junior Crystal Bellinger also had 17.
“Where we got burned was on transition points. The majority of threes they hit were on transition,” Dacko said. “It was one missed defensive assignment after another, and it’s really a gut check for our kids.”
Early in the second half URI had its largest lead of the game, 47-34, but the Minutewomen went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to three at 49-46 with 12:18 left. That was the closest UMass would get, as missed lay-ups and turnovers allowed URI to go on a run of its own.
After free throws from Gerardot put UMass within three, URI hit consecutive jumpers from Bellinger and McGrew. The Ram defense held UMass scoreless for four minutes and held them without a field goal for more than seven minutes. During that span of being held without a field goal, the Minutewomen went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
“I thought we were more than prepared with the game plan. We knew every play they were going to run,” Dacko said.
After the game, a disappointed Dacko did not have much to say to the team. She left it up to them to change the way the season has gone.
“I said [to the team], ‘I don’t have words for you right now,’ and I kind of remained silent,” Dacko said. “I have given them everything, and the coaching staff is trying to prepare them as well as they can.
“I just remained silent for the first time in my life,” Dacko said.
Games Notes
URI scored 19 fast-break points and scored 25 points off turnovers
