One look at the Massachusetts women’s basketball team’s first five games of conference play and one word comes to mind: difficult.
UMass (6-11, 0-5 Atlantic 10) has taken on three of the top five teams in its conference this season.
Now marred in a five-game losing streak, the Minutewomen are in desperate need of a win to turn their season around. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for UMass as they travel to George Washington (15-3, 5-0 A-10) Wednesday in a matchup in the nation’s capital.
The Colonials come into the game tied with Saint Bonaventure for the lead in the A-10 conference, boasting a perfect a 5-0 record in conference play.
UMass coach Sharon Dawley believes taking on a top team in the conference will only help the Minutewomen moving forward.
“Games like these definitely motivate us,” Dawley said. “Especially being able to take on someone who is projected to go top five in the draft, it’s a good challenge for our girls. Those games are fun to play.”
GW is the second-highest scoring team in the A-10, averaging 72.3 points per game, trailing only Duquesne (74.1).
Jonquel Jones leads the Colonials offensively with 17.4 points per game, which ranks second in the A-10. The 6-foot 4-forward is coming off a dominating performance against the Dukes where she posted 24 points and 18 rebounds. According to draftsite.com, Jones is projected to be the fourth pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft.
Dawley believes UMass will be prepared for the challenge on Wednesday.
“We know that they are coming in with one of the best offenses in our league, but we feel we have taken the necessary steps in practice to prepare for that,” Dawley said. “We’ve rehearsed different types of zones and stopping the ball near half court. It’s going to be a challenge on Wednesday, but we’ll be ready for it.”
One of the biggest challenges for the Minutewomen Wednesday will be their ability to rebound. GW currently leads the A-10 in offensive rebounds (369) and defensive rebounds (572), while UMass ranks 10th and 12th respectively.
The Minutewomen will need strong play from their forwards Rashida Timbilla, Maggie Mulligan and Alyssa Lawrence, if they plan on stopping Jones and Ciara Washington, who averages 13.6 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per game.
“We want to limit them to one shot and one shot only,” Timbilla said. “We all have been focusing on boxing out, not just the post players, to be effective on the glass and to be effective stopping their two bigs.”
UMass saw an encouraging performance from its offense in their last outing against Richmond, where it had four players score in double digits.
The Minutewomen will need to get another big game from sophomore guard Cierra Dillard, who had a career-high 27 points in Saturday’s contest against the Spiders.
Freshman guard Bria Stallworth also needs to have big game after being held scoreless in the loss against Richmond.
As losers of five straight, it will be important for the Minutewomen to start picking up wins in conference to set them up for a good seed in the A-10 tournament.
Timbilla and Dawley both feel the urgency to start seeing better results on the court.
“It starts Wednesday,” Timbilla said. “When you look at the bottom of the conference all the teams are right there, so picking up a few wins early can help us with momentum as we try to get ready for the tournament.”
“You go on the floor to win every day, so it’s time for us to put together a good 40 minutes and pull out a win,” Dawley added.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Smith Center in Washington D.C.
Adam Aucoin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @aaucoin34.
