After losing its one matchup against Fordham last season, the Massachusetts women’s basketball team took an early first quarter lead against the Rams (6-6, 0-1 Atlantic 10) and never looked back, winning the conference play opener by a score of 78-61. Though the Minutewomen (6-6, 1-0 A-10) were in the driver’s seat for much of the 40 minutes, the game remained close throughout the first three quarters as UMass couldn’t seem to pull away and Fordham continued to knock down tough shots that kept it in the game.
That was until the fourth quarter, where the Minutewomen held the Rams to just nine points and less than 33 percent shooting from the field. Seven of Fordham’s nine points in the quarter came from Taylor Donaldson, who finished the game with 25 points, 15 points more than any of her teammates. For UMass, Allie Palmieri matched the Rams’ point total alone, as she finished with nine points in the quarter. Chinenye Odenigbo finished with the second most points for the Minutewomen in the quarter, with six. With these two performances leading the charge, UMass outscored Fordham 20-9 in the final 10 minutes.
“Really proud of our team, start to finish played great,” head coach Mike Leflar said. “… We played just the way we practiced the last three days, came back the day after Christmas [with] a lot of energy in the gym, attention to detail, focus, and I was really happy for our team that it carried over into [Sunday].”
Offense was the name of the game on Sunday for UMass, with the team as a whole shooting 56.9 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc. Odenigbo had the highest percentage from the floor among players who took three or more shots, shooting 63.6 percent from the floor on 7-of-11 from the field. She finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Palmieri headed the 3-point barrage, as six of the eight 3-pointers that were made came from her. Palmieri had a career game scoring wise, scoring 31 points on near 53 percent from the field and 60 percent from 3-point land, along with seven made free throws out of eight.
In fact, four of the five members of the starting five finished in double digits, with Megan Olbrys and Stefanie Kulesza joining Odenigbo and Palmieri in double figures. Olbrys wrapped up with 12 points and Kulesza dropped 10. Kulesza reached this mark due in part to her strong performance in the third quarter, where she dropped five points and made her only 3-pointer of the day. In addition to her 10 points, she had four rebounds and five assists, along with two steals. Kulesza finished as a game high plus-22 for UMass.
“Our hard work as a group is paying off and we’re becoming a better and better basketball team,” Leflar said. “[I] was really proud that we had four players in double figures, really proud that we outrebounded Fordham. That’s kind of been their calling card this year and that’s kind of been ours, and we won the day.”
While the offense was the driving force behind Sunday’s win, the defense stepped up in the first conference game as well. The Minutewomen finished with 13 steals and one block, while forcing 26 turnovers from Fordham. Eight of the 26 Ram turnovers came in the fourth quarter, the same quarter that UMass won by 11 that stamped its win.
Turnovers were also a bit of a struggle for the Minutewomen, as they themselves turned the ball over 25 times. Fordham actually benefited more from UMass mistakes, as the Rams scored 31 points off turnovers compared to the Minutewomen’s 26. While this could indicate that Fordham was getting easier looks than UMass, the Minutewomen also finished with six more assists (20-14) than the Rams, searching for the best possible shot instead of playing isolation basketball. This is represented in the final box scores for each team, as Fordham had just two players in double digits while UMass had four.
The Minutewomen are next in action on Thursday, Jan. 2, taking on Saint Louis in Missouri. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game can be viewed on ESPN+.
“In asking some of our players individually, they feel that our hard work as a group is paying off,” Leflar said. “…We’re becoming a batter and better basketball team.”
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @Jdepin101.
