The Massachusetts women’s basketball team fell to Dayton, 78-49, on Wednesday night in a game that the Flyers dominated in nearly all stat categories.
Dayton now moves to 19-4 on the season and remains undefeated (12-0) in Atlantic 10 conference play.
It was on the boards that the Minutewomen (11-13, 3-8 A-10) had most of their problems in this matchup. The Flyers won the rebounding battle 56-41, and most importantly had 22 offensive rebounds that led to 25 second chance points.
“Two things, yes they had size number one, and then number two is our inability to find someone and box out and drive people back,” UMass coach Tory Verdi said. “Plain and simple, we did not box out, we did not rebound, we allowed them second chance opportunities points, and allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do tonight.”
Much of the success down low can be attested to Dayton’s Alex Harris who had 16 points, 12 rebounds with 7 being offensive, and 4 block. UMass counterpart Maggie Mulligan put together a hard-fought effort and finished with nine points to go along with 14 rebounds.
It was more than just an assault on the low post that got Dayton the substantial victory: junior guard Lauren Cannatelli played a big role in the backcourt finishing with 26 points on 8-17 shooting and 7-15 from beyond the arc, for the Flyers. The top scorer for the Minutewomen ended up being freshman Bre Hampton-Bey, who finished the game with 14 points along with five assists and two steals.
“Just because you’re struggling offensively doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways that you can impact the game,” Verdi said. “We’ve got to figure that part out, and when things aren’t going well we have to figure out how to make something else happen. You can’t just allow yourself to take yourself out of the game. That’s not who we want to be and again, it goes back to our lack of consistency on both sides of the ball.”
Although the game didn’t end well for the Minutewomen, it was one they definitely weren’t favored to win from the tip.
Dayton currently leads the A-10 in points per game averaging 75.5. They are also first in three-point field goal percentage, and are second in total rebounds per game.
“Give Dayton credit; there’s a reason why they’re the number one team in our conference,” Verdi said. “They’re bigger than us, they’re stronger than us, they’re better at every single position,” Verdi said.
With five games left on the set schedule, the Minutewomen are hoping to gain some momentum in the late-going which they can carry into the A-10 tournament.
UMass will play George Mason away on Sunday in yet another tough conference matchup.
Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. from Fairfax, Virginia.
Cameron Sibert can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @camsibert.
