The Massachusetts women’s basketball team got back into the win column on Saturday against Columbia in part due to the performance of Sydney Taylor who scored a team high 19 points to go along with nine rebounds. Taylor narrowly missed out on her first career double-double.
“Right from the jump I thought Sydney Taylor got us going,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said. “Her defense alone, and her communication was outstanding.”
In UMass’s last game against Boston College in which it lost 66-60, Taylor struggled mightily with her shot finishing with 10 points on 2-of-16 shooting. In terms of scoring so far this season, Taylor, just like Breen, is relied on heavily to put the ball in the basket, but especially from behind the 3-point line.
In Saturday’s contest, Taylor came out of the gates red hot knocking down two quick 3-pointers in the first three minutes of play. Taylor finished out the first quarter with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Although Taylor would cool off finishing the game shooting 6-for-16 from the field her hot shooting start was instrumental in helping the Minutewomen jump out to a 31-12 lead after one quarter of play.
Despite Taylor finishing out the game shooting 2-of-11, her confidence in her shot did not seem to waver. This was highlighted in the fourth quarter as Taylor missed a mid-range jumper. Off the miss Breen tracked down the offensive rebound.
Breen then swung the ball to the short side corner where Taylor was open, ready for a catch and shoot opportunity. Some players might pass up a shot right after they have missed one before, but Taylor exhibited a short memory and let it fly.
Taylor rattled home the triple and put the Minutewomen up 71-52 with 7:34 to go.
“Any time when you have a big game like that… shooting the ball well…attacking off the dribble as well it gets your momentum going,” Verdi said. “What I have been preaching all along is consistency, and that’s what we are striving for.
On the season Taylor is shooting 38 percent from the field and around 31 percent from behind the arc. Taylor is not hesitating to shoot the ball and in the past four games Taylor has attempted 14.5 shots a contest.
While the last few games may have appeared somewhat of a shooting slump for Taylor, it appears that she is slowly climbing out of it. Saturday marks her best shooting performance since shooting 50 percent from the field against South Dakota State.
For Taylor, a game like this can mean a return to shooting the ball with the consistency that her coach emphasizes. Through the first six games of the season Taylor was shooting 49.4 percent from the field, while averaging 20 points per game.
Along with scoring and rebounding, Taylor displayed great effort on the defensive end. The guard/forward even did a little bit of the dirty work, diving on a loose ball in the fourth quarter. Columbia tied up Taylor forcing a jump ball, however the possession arrow went to UMass.
Verdi emphasizes having a scorer who is capable of chipping in other areas is critical to a team’s success and the Minutewomen have one of those players in Sydney Taylor.
UMass will have a chance for some deserved rest as it heads back to Amherst to take on Vermont on Dec. 19 at 3:30 p.m.
James DiLuca can be reached at [email protected].
