The Massachusetts women’s basketball team was unable to earn its first win despite strong play, as it fell to East Carolina, 97-83, on Sunday.

 The Minutewomen (0-6) put up a strong second half showing against the Pirates (3-3), shooting 57.1 percent from the field.  The squad scored 45 of its points in the second half.

UMass coach Sharon Dawley was impressed with the second half performance, but pointed out that slow starts and weak opening defensive sequences need to be corrected in order for the team to win games down the road.

In the Maroon and White’s offensive outburst, sophomore Shakia Robinson led the way with an historic performance.

Robinson put 30 points on the board on the afternoon.  The mark is not only her career high, but it also makes her the first Minutewoman to score 30 or more points in a game since Jen Butler did it on Jan. 6, 2003 against Temple. Robinson also had eight rebounds in her 32 minutes.

“We’ve always known that she’s had that in her,” Dawley said. “She’s a phenomenal athlete, somebody that you have to worry about for sure down low. I think this game will build a lot of confidence for her, and that she could be in the 20s on a regular basis.”

Senior Cerie Mosgrove also contributed heavily on offense, tying her career-best with 19 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 showing at the free throw line. She also had eight rebounds.

The Pirates never relinquished the lead in the game, starting right from the tip-off with an 8-0 run. They then proceeded to go on a 22-8 run in just over four minutes to build the score to 40-16.

Leading 55-38 after the first half, ECU again built its lead to 24 points by the 5:20 mark, leaving UMass little time to recover.

Though the Minutewomen scored 17 points in the final 4:26 of regulation, the clock proved to be their downfall, as they ran out of time before they could complete the comeback.

Overall, the Maroon and White finished the day 31-of-61 (50.8 percent) from the floor and 16-for-21 (76.2 percent) from the free throw line.  The team also out-rebounded ECU, 42-30.

UMass suffered a bitter 82-50 loss on Saturday afternoon against No. 23 Maryland, despite shooting 9-of-22 from 3-point range.

A big part of that performance from beyond the arc was the show put on by Mosgrove.

Mosgrove scored nine points on the day and made four rebounds against the Terrapins (5-1), with the final basket on the afternoon for the Minutewomen coming on her 100th career 3-pointer. 

Mosgrove became just the seventh player in program history to convert at least 100 attempts from beyond the arc.

The Minutewomen went 16-for-48 (33.3 percent) from the field, while going 9-for-18 from the free throw line.  They were out-rebounded by the Terps, 47-25.

“I think that Maryland is an extremely athletic and extremely big team,” Dawley said. “The positive points for us are when we took away the paint and slowed it up just a little bit, but overall we had way too many defensive breakdowns. Most of their points were second-chance points, and we can’t allow that.”

“We just kept telling them to never give up and that this game is going to define ourselves as a team that never gives up,” Dawley said.

Senior Megan Zullo led UMass in scoring against Maryland, racking up 14 points while going 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Robinson had another strong performance with six rebounds, six points, four assists and two steals.

David Martin can be reached at [email protected].