Coming off a loss on Tuesday night, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team will host the top seed in the Atlantic 10, Davidson, on Friday.

Head coach Tory Verdi made it clear that Davidson (6-3, 3-0 A-10) primarily does two things on offense: shoot threes and take layups. The key to Wildcats’ offensive success is their ability to both shoot and put the ball on the floor really well.

The Minutewomen’s (6-2, 2-1 A-10) knowledge of outside shooters, like scoring leader Chloe Welch (17.6 per game) is only the first step in stopping the Wildcats’ dominant offense.

“[We] have to do a great job of containing their dribble penetration and closing out on shooters,” Verdi said.

Davidson’s efficient offense pairs well with its speed on both ends of the floor.

“They are fast to get out in transition offensively,” Verdi said. “The style of play where they want to push and attack offensively, so defensively in transition we got to do a great job and take away all those one-legged layups.”

The Wildcat’s three-point potential is not new to defend for this UMass team. Like seen against La Salle, teams have the ability to knock down threes even with the Minutewomen’s hands in its face.

The difference maker in tomorrow’s match up will be the way the Minutewomen start the game, as they’ve spent the early season building off the tone set by the opponent.

“Being competitive, having a competitive spirit and having a ton of energy,” Verdi said of what he hopes to see from his team in the first five minutes of play. “We got one day to prep for them. We’re coming off a loss, I want to see us be resilient, bounce back and we will find out a lot about our character here tomorrow night.”

“You can’t allow what occurred in the last game to affect you in this game, so we have to put it behind us and move forward,” Verdi said.

A key matchup to look out for on Friday is Destiney Philoxy and Welch. Both quick, versatile players who have inside and outside talents, though it’s safe to say Philoxy won’t be losing sleep over it Thursday night.

“I’m going to defend Chloe like I am going to defend anybody else,” Philoxy said. “She is a regular player to me; she isn’t anything special I would say.”

Philoxy will not be the only UMass player responsible for shutting down Welch.

“You have to do a great job of containing her, all five people need to defend her” Verdi said. “When the ball is in her hands, she is thinking score every single time she touches it so we should be loaded up and help should be there. We should be ready to know that if you give her plenty of space, she is going to pull the trigger and shoot the three.”

If Welch decides to pump fake and drive instead, the Minutewomen will need to shift over and draw charges, which is what Philoxy is known for on defense.

When asked about preparation for Friday’s game, Maddie Sims echoed the importance of stopping Davidson’s transition play, but emphasized it has to come with character for UMass as well.

“They like to run in transition and get out and shoot threes as well so we’re just trying to stop that,” Sims said. “Just be ourselves honestly, we weren’t ourselves against Rhode Island so that’s what we are looking forward to doing against Davidson.”

On Tuesday, 6-foot-2 freshman Angelique Ngalakulondi played a few valuable minutes for the Minutewomen, which is something to look out for on Friday.

“I am excited about tomorrow night’s game,” Verdi said. “I’m looking forward to seeing some of our personnel who may have not had the opportunity to see a lot of minutes get out there and get some time.”

Many questions arise in conversation about the important game on Friday night. All eyes may be on Davidson’s scoring machine Chloe Welch, but Philoxy thinks another question needs to be asked.

“How is she going to stop me and my team?”

Davidson is undefeated in conference play and on a six-game win streak. UMass looks to shake things up on Friday, tipoff set for 5 p.m.

Lulu Kesin can be reached via email at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @LuluKesin