Wednesday night might as well have been Kim Pierre-Louis night at Mullins Center. The senior put on a show for those in attendance, reaching a career milestone along the way in a 60-49 win by the Massachusetts women’s basketball team over Davidson.
Pierre-Louis posted her sixth double-double of the season, scoring 27 points and hauling in 11 rebounds in the game.
More importantly though, Pierre-Louis reached a career milestone that no one thought she would reach just a few years ago when she wasn’t getting consistent minutes – 1000 career points.
The forward joins a list of only 20 Minutewomen to ever reach that achievement.
According to UMass coach Sharon Dawley, the team tried to keep the milestone a secret from Pierre-Louis and wanted to surprise the senior. However, the secret was spoiled, but Dawley could not have been prouder of her player.
“She did a great job of keeping her composure,” Dawley said. “It can go either way. Some people get overly excited or overly nervous, but Kim handled it like a pro.”
“It was kind of surprising because I never thought I would reach 1000 points,” Pierre-Louis said. “It was a great feeling to get that.”
Dawley credited Pierre-Louis for her resilience the past few years and believes it’s a message the whole team should pay attention to.
“If there’s something you want, it doesn’t matter if things don’t go your way – make things go your way,” Dawley said.
Despite the talk about the career accomplishments, the Minutewomen had a tough game on their hands against a scrappy Davidson team.
The Wildcats’ only lead in the game came 40 seconds in, but the team was consistently within striking distance. Davidson (5-21, 1-12 A-10) was led offensively by junior forward Hannah Early, who scored 18 points in the game – 11 of which came in a stellar first half that saw her knock down three 3-pointers.
Despite the Wildcats best efforts to overtake UMass, they never were able to get over the hump and take the lead.
Dawley loved the scrappy play her team showed in the heat of the game.
“We had an underlying will to win in this game,” Dawley said. “This game meant a lot to us pride-wise. We want to get the best position we can for the upcoming tournament so games like this are big for us.”
With the Minutewomen (10-15, 4-9 A-10) taking two out of three on their homestand, the confidence is rising for the club. Dawley thinks the performance will give them momentum going forward.
“I think that whenever you win a game, whether it’s pretty or ugly you gain confidence,” Dawley said. “Every win we get from this point on separates us from that pack trying to get a better seed. We plan to work hard this week and hopefully we can get the win on Sunday.
Rashida Timbilla had an all-around good game for UMass scoring seven points, 15 rebounds and four assists. The junior currently sits second in the Atlantic-10 in rebounds with 9.5 per game coming into this game.
“Having long arms definitely helps,” Timbilla said with laughter. “I think rebounding is all effort and if my shot’s not falling, if I’m turning the ball over, rebounding is something that is consistently there for me.”
Freshman point guard Leah McDerment also chipped in with six points and four assists of her own.
All in all, Dawley was very excited with the defensive effort her players gave during the game and is hoping they can continue the trend.
The Minutewomen will now head on the road for two games, the first of which is set for Sunday at Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Virginia. Tip-off is at 1pm.
Adam Aucoin can be reached at [email protected].
