As good as the Massachusetts women’s basketball team has played this season, its Achilles heel is clear: maintaining consistency for the full game.
Even in the most prominent UMass (6-1, 2-1 Atlantic 10) wins, four perfect quarters from the Minutewomen is usually tough to find. Win or lose, there is a consistent theme of either a slow first quarter, a hiccup in the third or things fall apart in the fourth, which is what happened Tuesday night in the 48-47 loss to Rhode Island.
As for Tuesday’s game, both UMass and URI (2-4, 2-1 A-10) didn’t have much to show offensively to start the game. Typically, the Minutewomen make up for a rough quarter like they did last game with La Salle, or early on against Fairfield and St. John’s.
The Minutewomen did not do this on Tuesday night.
“We couldn’t score,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said. “Our lack of offensive execution hurt us, it hurt us on defense as well. Just overall we beat ourselves tonight.”
This was the second meeting of the Rams and the Minutewomen in the Mullins Center this season. Verdi made a point that in a division like the A-10, teams like to scout. URI knew to take away cuts from Sam Breen and Maddie Sims in the post, which eliminated simple inside passes that the Minutewomen have been making all season long.
Verdi felt as though his team failed to find other ways to create success Tuesday night.
“We did a lot of uncharacteristic things, as if we’re never supposed to be a team that is down in a basketball game,” Verdi said. “When you face some adversity, you have to fight back, and we didn’t have that.”
The out of character performance from the Minutewomen Tuesday night may be the wake-up call needed to stop the reliance on comebacks or complacency with the occasional bad quarter.
Destiney Philoxy, who has made it known her effort will never be the issue, feels like all around consistency needs to improve.
“I feel like we focused on consistency a lot over the past few years, but I feel like this year we have a great team and consistency is what we need,” Philoxy said. “Our team is young, so we need to learn from each other, and build off each other.”
Moving forward, UMass’ ability to turn the corner after this loss will be something to keep an eye on. The Minutewomen want to move forward.
“Friday we are here, and we will see how consistent we are,” Philoxy said.
UMass stays home to face Davidson on Friday at 5 p.m.
Lulu Kesin can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @LuluKesin.
