The Massachusetts women basketball team now has two active players with 1000 career points in Sam Breen and Destiny Philoxy. However, on this historic night, the Minutewomen could not bring home the win against ACC foe Boston College.
With the win, the Eagles (7-2) now move to 12-4 all time against the Minutewomen. This game also marks UMass’ (9-2) first home loss of the season.
The Minutewomen were only down by four heading into the second half, but BC got things rolling in the third quarter pushing their lead too as much as 18. Guard Cam Swartz heated up, scoring 10 of her 15 points in the frame.
However, in the fourth the Minutewomen turned up the heat on defense limiting the Eagles to just seven points on 1-8 shooting.
“We played [BC’s] basketball today, but in the fourth quarter we tried to play ours,” Philoxy said. “We were down by so much and it was too late to catch up.”
Breen wasted no time scoring her 1000th career point as she reached the milestone just 4 minutes and 34 seconds into the game. As Michelle Pruitt had her shot blocked, Breen was able to track down the loose ball and fire in a righty jump hook.
“I didn’t know if I should have taken that,” Breen said of the shot that gave her 1000. “Everyone was guarding me tight and I saw space, and it went it.”
Philoxy got to mark in the early in the fourth quarter as she knifed inside for a lefty layup.
“We didn’t plan [to score 1000 on the same night],” Breen said. “… A win would have sealed the deal, but its definitely cool to get it with [Philoxy] on the same night.
The Minutewomen had an off night shooting the ball as they finished the game 33 percent from the field. Sydney Taylor had an especially poor shooting game, connecting on only two of her 16 attempts. Turnovers were also an issue for UMass as they committed 20 on the game.
“I think [BC] sped us up… were trying to hit home runs in transition and we are throwing the ball all over god’s creation instead of just valuing the ball,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said postgame. “We never did execute in the half court offensively here today.”
On the offensive end for the Minutewomen Breen and Ber’Nyah Mayo led the way, each scoring 14 points. Philoxy added 13 points to go along with three blocks. UMass did not get much help from its bench, as the Minutewomen only had two points come from outside of the starting five compared to the Eagles’ 14.
BC was led by Taylor Soule who had 20 points on 7-15 shooting. Center Maria Gakdeng added 10 points on 5-7 shooting to go along with seven boards
UMass has been plagued by lackluster foul shooting this whole season and in Wednesday’s contest against the Eagles it was on full display as the team shot 18-28 from the charity stripe. On the season the Minutewomen have shot 64.1 percent from the line which ranks them 290th out of 348 Division 1 teams.
With 2:18 left in the game, Angelique Ngalakulondi stepped to the line with a chance to cut BC’s lead to six. Ngalakulondi proceeded to miss both free throws which greatly hurt UMass’s hopes of a comeback.
The Minutewomen look to get back on track as they will travel to New York to face off against Columbia. The game is set to be played this Saturday at 2 p.m.
James DiLuca can be reached at [email protected].
