With one minute, four seconds remaining in the Massachusetts women’s basketball team’s final home game of the season, Cierra Dillard rose from one knee while in front of the scorer’s table to check in. As she stood up and made her way onto the court, the crowd already knew what to expect and began rising from their seats to give a standing ovation.
The end of the Minutewomen’s (11-17, 5-11 Atlantic 10) Senior Day had arrived with a 21-point lead over La Salle (5-24, 2-14 A-10), so it came time for senior forward Rashida Timbilla – the recipient of all the cheers and applause – to come out.
Clapping her hands, she sprinted off of the court in the Mullins Center for the last time, then gave a wave in thanks and met UMass coach Sharon Dawley’s open arms for a long embrace. In that hug, Dawley told the veteran what any coach would tell one of their star players in their last home game together; that she loved her and that she was really proud of her.
“(It was) a little sad, you know, the last time playing in the Mullins Center as a player,” Timbilla said. “Obviously it’s a huge accomplishment to play four years here (and it’s) obviously huge for me … It was a lot of emotion mixed into one but, you know, I was just happy we got the win and walked off with my teammates and coaches.”
When the final buzzer sounded, the score read 80-57 in UMass’ favor. Alyssa Lawrence led the team in scoring with 19 points and Dillard followed right behind her with 17 points of her own. However, all of the Minutewomen’s attention still focused around Timbilla in her last regular season game, as Dawley even admitted that she had trouble thinking about the game at times because of all the emotion surrounding the senior.
“It’s probably one of the most emotional games you have as a coach, whenever you have someone like Rashida on your team and this (being) her last game at Mullins,” Dawley said. “It’s almost like you have to keep telling yourself to focus on the task at hand and not that.”
“When you’re saying bye to someone that you really loved seeing every day, it’s real emotional,” Dawley said. “She came here, she wanted to make a difference (and) she certainly made a difference. We’re really proud of her. Family never graduates so we’ll hear from her a lot, but the joy of coaching her everyday won’t happen anymore.”
Entering the game, Timbilla needed 13 rebounds to reach the rare milestone of 1,000. She fell short of that number by three, however, as she finished the contest with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Timbilla also added three steals, three assists and a team-high 34 minutes played, making her last home game no different from the many other impactful performances that she’s had in her career.
“(She was) awesome,” Dawley said on Timbilla’s performance. “She attacked offensively, she was herself on defense (and) she moved the ball well. The whole time we’ve had Rashida, we wanted her to be more selfish on offense. She was not selfish today on offense, but she did look for her own a little bit more and it was fun to see.”
Timbilla finishes the season with a team-leading 9.5 rebounds per game, ranking third in the A-10. While the Ottawa, Ontario, product leaves the Minutewomen program as one of the better rebounds and passing forwards of Dawley’s tenure, though, her impact extends far beyond the x’s and o’s of the game.
“She’s so level-headed all the time,” Lawrence said. “She just keeps her composure, she brings us all together and she just always (plays hard). As soon as I got here, she’s kind of (been) one of the most responsible people here. You know if you’re doing something wrong, you kind of look for her to see what’s going on.”
“I have dozens of moments in my head where we start to kind of fall apart a little bit and she’s just like, ‘we’re good, we’re good, we’re good,’” she continued. “Her leadership will be a huge thing we’ll miss.”
Overall, Timbilla is more than pleased with the way her career at UMass turned out.
“It’s been up and down,” Timbilla said. “(When) I started out, we won three games in my first year and then four games the next year. It started out difficult but as it went on, there’s been a lot of incredible moments and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I had great teammates, great coaches, great staff to be around, so I’m really fortunate.”
Tom Mulherin can be reached at [email protected].
