After a 21-day break from game play, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team beat La Salle on the road on Sunday afternoon.
While the first few minutes of play may have been a clear reflection of UMass’ (6-1, 2-0 Atlantic 10) long break from play, things cleared up in the second half and turned into another successful conference win.
From tipoff, UMass faced a hot La Salle (3-5, 0-2 A-10) offense who was hitting shots from the field and behind the 3-point line. Sam Breen developed her own mini hot streak to bring the Minutewomen back and even put them up one at the end of the first quarter.
“We haven’t played in three weeks, so I thought we were a little sluggish,” said head coach Tory Verdi. “We weren’t executing the way we are capable of executing. I thought we did a great job down the stretch executing, scoring and getting high percentage shots but we were a little sluggish. We had to get our feet underneath us and get back at it.”
In the second quarter however, both teams turned ice cold. Neither team could complete a bucket for minutes, until Maddie Sims hit an elbow jumper with just under four minutes to go in the first half. Sydney Taylor’s free throws with seconds left in the first half put UMass up two heading into halftime.
Adjustments at halftime to drop into a 2-3 zone worked in the Minutewomen’s favor and made up for previous 3-point dominance by La Salle early on. UMass remained in zone defense for the majority of the second half.
“We knew they were going to come out and shoot a lot of threes and they hit a lot early,” Breen said. “When we went zone, it definitely slowed them down. I think figuring out our defense and getting our help rotation back down in a game setting really worked for us. Yes, being off for a while came with a little of slowness at the beginning but they were also just hitting shots with hands in their face.”
Breen’s second half performance brought force into the Minutewomen’s offense. Her inside and outside scoring with passes from Destiney Philoxy and Ber’Nyah Mayo created the success UMass needed.
“I am really proud of our effort today,” Verdi said. “We responded in a big way in the second half and I thought Ber’Nyah Mayo played really well for us, she was our catalyst as was Destiney Philoxy in the second half.
Philoxy had a career high 10 assists, while Breen had a double-double, finishing with 25 points and 13 rebounds. Mayo chipped in 13 points.
The Minutewomen took control of the game in the second half but really stepped on the gas with a few minutes to go. Breen attributes that surge of energy to a team goal from last season.
“I think when we huddle as a team on the court, we definitely focus on not dropping the energy but picking it back up,” Breen said. “Continuing to find the open person even when we have that lead with five minutes left was super important to not let that lead slip away. We’ve definitely gotten better at that from last year to this year.”
Sunday’s game was the start of a four-day week the Minutewomen face. UMass heads back home on Tuesday to face Rhode Island for the second time this season.
Lulu Kesin can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @Lulukesin.
