Another disastrous third quarter doomed the Massachusetts women’s basketball team in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. The 70-64 loss to Saint Louis on Tuesday night brought an end to UMass’ season.
After losing by 40 points to Saint Louis in the tournament last year, UMass (14-16, 6-10 Atlantic 10) hung around until the very end, never falling behind by more than eight points and holding the lead for over 28 minutes.
“I have a group of players in the locker room who are upset, and that’s what it should be all about,” UMass coach Tory Verdi said. “They should be upset. When you work so hard and you’re so invested and you want something special to happen and you lose and you don’t get the results that you want, it should hurt. And I’m proud of that.”
UMass seemed primed for an upset after jumping out to a 16-point lead in the second quarter, but SLU chipped away, cutting the lead to 10 points at halftime and taking a one-point lead late in the third quarter. The Minutewomen hung around in the fourth, but the Billikens went on an 11-1 run and seized the lead for good with 6:28 left.
“We only scored nine points in the third period,” Verdi said. “If you want to win games against a team like Saint Louis, you’ve got to be consistent for all four periods.”
The collapse began late in the second quarter, as the Billikens went on a 7-2 run late in the quarter and held UMass scoreless for the final 2:20 of the half.
For SLU, the shift occurred when senior Jackie Kemph caught fire in the third. Kemph, honored as the A-10 Player of the Year two years in a row, was held in check in the first half, but lit up the UMass defense for 12 points in the third quarter to swing the momentum of the game. Kemph finished with 21 points and eight of the Billikens’ 17 assists.
“She’s a really good basketball player, and we did a great job on her for the first 20 minutes,” Verdi said. “That’s what great players do, they make it happen.”
The Minutewomen didn’t hit enough shots in the second half, missing 43 field goals on the night. In a one-point loss in Saint Louis earlier this season, UMass missed 53 field goals.
UMass’ perimeter shooting particularly suffered as the game went on. The Minutewomen began the game 3-7 from beyond the arc, but went just 1-13 on 3-point attempts down the stretch. Hailey Leidel, who set a program record for 3-pointers in a single season against Richmond last week, shot 0-9 from three and finished with just five points.
“[When] our best three-point shooter goes 0-9, our leading scorer scores 5 points, it’s hard to make up in those areas,” Verdi said. “We struggled from the perimeter to make shots.”
Statistically, it was senior Maggie Mulligan leading the way for UMass. Mulligan finished with 14 points and 19 rebounds, chipping in three blocks and shooting 6-7 from the foul line.
Leidel and Bre Hampton-Bey, the other top scorer for the team, were both held in check by the Billikens’ defense. Hampton-Bey scored 10 points, most of which came in the final minutes of the game.
“They’re our catalysts, they make us go,” Verdi said. “Whenever those guys have big nights for us, what it does is it gets everybody else going. Unfortunately, tonight, that wasn’t the case.”
With the loss, UMass is out of the A-10 Tournament and its season is over. The Minutewomen finished 14-16, a five-win improvement from a year ago, and expect to bring back all but two players from this year’s team.
“This is a journey,” Verdi said. “This conference season has been a roller-coaster, no question. Do I think we improved? No question about it. It’s a tough loss for today but I’m really excited about what the future holds.”
Thomas Haines can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @thainessports.
