On a historic night which saw Sam Breen and Destiney Philoxy eclipse the 1,000 point mark, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team couldn’t find offensive production as a unit, leaving the duo’s individual efforts fruitless.
UMass’ (9-2) late comeback attempt fell short as they lost to the Eagles 66-60. The team lacked offensive consistency and only managed two bench points. They also gave up twenty turnovers.
“At times we were dysfunctional,” head coach Tory Verdi said. “There’s more to basketball than just basketball. You gotta be systematic. Offensively and defensively, everyone needs to know their jobs. When one person doesn’t do their job, then you don’t function and then you give things up.”
After starting the first 10 games of the year and averaging 20.1 minutes per game, forward Makennah White did not see the court tonight. Instead, Angelique Ngalakulondi got the start in her place and saw 27 minutes of action. She finished with seven points and eight rebounds.. In a game that saw little offensive production, Ngalakunlondi’s seven points as the fifth starter on the court turned out to be huge for UMass.
White was healthy and dressed for the game and when asked about White not getting playing time, Verdi said “It was a coach’s decision.”
As a result, forward Michelle Pruitt saw extended minutes and came off the bench early. She played a season-high 14 minutes, but only converted one of her four field goal attempts. The Eagles dominated UMass in the bench points category, with 14 compared to the Minutewomen’s two.
Pruitt was the only player to score points coming off the bench, as Verdi rolled with a seven-player rotation. This meant major minutes for Breen, Philoxy, Sydney Taylor and Ber’Nyah Mayo. The four each had at least 34 minutes of action, with Breen seeing the court for the better part of 38 minutes. Shavonne Smith had eleven minutes of playing time but failed to knock down any of her three shots.
“No, I don’t think fatigue [set in],” Verdi said. “I think they were tired because they were being out-physicaled… They had the legs today and I know that they were excited to play. We just got out-toughed, there’s no question about it.”
UMass did not shoot the ball with great efficiency on Wednesday. Taylor especially had a rough night, getting only two of her 16 shot attempts to fall. Overall, the team went a combined 20-for-60 from the field.
“Usually a lot of us don’t struggle on the same night,” Breen said. “Usually if one person’s off, the rest pick them up… They played us well, and we didn’t really know how to respond.”
Boston College’s Taylor Soule shot a solid 7-15 from the field and wreaked havoc on the defensive end. She pressured Breen all game and did not allow her to get comfortable. Soule’s tough, physical defense made Breen go cold after scoring her 1000th point in the first quarter. Without Breen’s scoring, UMass’ offense slowed to a halt. The team suffered a six minute 20 second scoring drought before Breen was able to end it with a layup.
“Soule did not get off me at all,” Breen said. “She was face guarding me most of the time… She wasn’t helping off me at all. She played me well. For real, she played me well.”
Free throw shooting has also been a major headache for the Minutewomen this season. The team went 18-for-28 from the foul line on Wednesday. On the season, the team has shot a collective 143-for-223 from the charity stripe, an unsatisfactory 64 percent. They rank second to last in the Atlantic 10 conference.
“If you’re not in the right place at the right time doing the right things, then we break down,” Verdi said. “We broke down here today. That’s something some players who haven’t played a lot need to understand.”
The team travels to New York to take on Columbia on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Michael Araujo can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Araujo_Michael_.
