The Massachusetts women’s basketball team trounced the struggling Northeastern Huskies by a margin of 31 points, redeeming itself from a lackluster performance against an inferior Siena team last contest. The win was UMass’ (3-5) first against the Huskies (1-6) in the last six matchups.
The win was a dominant team performance led by captains Megan Olbrys and Allie Palmieri. Palmieri scored 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting, five rebounds and two assists. Olbrys added 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
Beyond those two performances, as a team, the Minutewomen flat out dominated, taking a heavy advantage on the glass and out-rebounding Northeastern 42-19. UMass went on runs of 20-1 in the first quarter and 22-8 in the second quarter. It led by 41 points at the most. Palmieri hit a jumper to give UMass a 5-4 lead which it would never surrender, while the team as a whole shot 52 percent from the field.
“40 minute game for us, just really proud of our effort and actually really proud to see bounce back after a difficult loss [to Siena] and the way our team responded in practice was awesome,” head coach Mike Leflar said. “It was deserved tonight and I was really proud of [the results] and proud of our leadership as well.”
Olbrys, a Villanova transfer and Massachusetts native, has really found her stride as she has missed just two shots from the field in her last two games. She has amassed 38 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists combined in those games.
“[Olbrys] is our primary post scorer,” Leflar said. “For her to have that confidence and her teammates to have the confidence to throw it into her, I want these guys to feel comfortable in those roles and develop those roles.”
Elsewhere, the bench had 33 points on Thursday, a season high. The bench scoring was led by Yahmani McKayle, who notched 13 in her first game coming off the bench. Every Mintutewoman recorded a minute in the contest, including Kasey Bretones, who logged the first minutes of her young career. Lilly Ferguson grabbed a team-high six rebounds including four offensive rebounds.
“[Palmieri] and I, we really strive to be hungry constantly,” Olbrys said. “This has been something we’ve been on the brink of every single time and I feel like just completing it now, we know what it takes to win and now we got over that hump. The energy throughout the entire team, it’s definitely going to be different going into future games.”
Abigail Jegede posted a 20-point performance for the Huskies and Camille Clement added 12. Northeastern has lost by an average margin of 28 points in each of its six losses to start the 2024-25 season.
“To show up like that at practice after a difficult loss was a good testament to our team’s character,” Leflar said. “To do it on the court in a game was awesome and I was just really proud of our group tonight. The way we played, that was a really awesome brand of basketball. The margin matters less to me. The win matters a lot for me and it matters a lot for our team.”
The Minutewomen have a three-game road trip to round out their non-conference slate with the next contest on Sunday, Dec. 8 against the Big Green of Dartmouth. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m.
Owen Shelffo can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @owen_shelffo.
