It’s been a long and hard season for the Massachusetts women’s basketball team, but now the Minutewomen find themselves in a viable position in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
UMass (13-16, 5-9 A-10) earned the final spot in the A-10 Tournament and a matchup Friday night in Philadelphia with Dayton (23-7, 9-5 A-10). Two weeks ago Dayton came to the Mullins Center and had trouble containing Kate Mills, who scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The senior forward was a standout on the defensive end as well – she blocked five shots leading UMass to a 56-46 victory.
“If you look at the draw for us, we’re playing Dayton [and] we’ve already beaten them this year. I think we matchup well against them,” UMass coach Marnie Dacko said. “I think we’ve got a great deal of confidence playing them.”
The Minutewomen were bounced from the first round of the A-10 Tournament last year as a No. 7 seed against St. Bonaventure, a No. 10 seed. The Minutewomen blew a 16-point lead to the Bonnies. They led, 45-29, with 15:24 left in the game, when the Bonnies went on a 21-3 run to take the lead and lost 63-60. Under Dacko UMass has made the A-10 Tournament every year, but is only 1-5 in six tournament appearances.
“We learned from a year ago that we didn’t get by,” Dacko said. “St. Bonnies stopped us because we felt we were going to go in and take them.”
When Dayton came to Amherst two weeks ago, the Minutewomen were not playing good basketball. Before the game, UMass had lost five of its previous six. They lost an important game to Saint Louis and Duquesne – both teams that were fighting for the last few spots in the A-10 Tournament. However, as bad as UMass was playing Dacko knew they had a chance when Dayton arrived.
“We did a real good job of outrebounding them on the boards, that’s something we have to concentrate on,” Dacko said. “We’ve been focusing more and more on boxing out and getting the ball.”
The Minutewomen outrebounded the Flyers, 45-26, back on Feb. 23. Not only did UMass control the boards, its defense stood out as it held Dayton to 27.6 percent in the first half. The Minutewomen ended the half on a 17-7 run to go on top 33-21. In the second half UMass’s offense went cold and Dayton cut the lead to 48-40. However, the defense stepped up again, suffocating the Flyers as they scored six points in the final seven minutes of the game.
On Tuesday coach Dacko said she’s watch that game tape four times and that was just that day. After looking at the tape Dacko can always find room for improvement. She expects senior forward Pam Rosanio , who went 5-for-15 from the field, to play better.
“I think we have to mix it up, they have a smart point guard [senior Karah] Cloxton and so we have to be ready to change defenses,” Dacko said. “We can’t just sit back and be complacent.”
Dayton has the ability to make a lot of adjustments throughout the game, so whether UMass is in a zone defense, a man-to-man or a half-court press, Dayton will be ready.
Dayton cruised through the end of the regular season with six wins in its last eight games, only losing to Richmond and UMass. UMass finished the season winning two of its last three games to push for that final A-10 spot. Dacko feels the Minutewomen are playing their best basketball in the last few games, even in the loss to Temple.
“I don’t think the score indicates how well we played [against Temple],” Dacko said. “I think we are playing some good basketball right now. I think we are playing with confidence and the last few games we’ve kept our turnovers to 14ish and if we keep them under 15 we’ll be in the ball game.”
The winner of this game will face fourth-seeded Charlotte.
Steve Games can be reached at [email protected]
