Down 14 points with four minutes and 23 seconds remaining, it looked as though the Massachusetts women’s basketball team would continue the cold streak that it found itself in for the latter three quarters of the game. After putting up 22 points against Saint Joseph’s in the first quarter, the Minutewomen (9-9, 4-3 Atlantic 10) mustered just 26 points in the succeeding 30 minutes.
A minute passed before Allie Palmieri made a jumper that cut the lead to 12, before Megan Olbrys benefited from a Hawks’ (14-4, 5-2 A-10) turnover, laying the ball in for the and-one which cut the lead to nine. Olbrys called her own number again 30 seconds later, laying the ball in off a pass from Chinenye Odenigbo. And on Saint Joe’s ensuing offensive possession, the ball was kicked out of bounds by one of its own, putting the ball back in UMass’ hands. The cold streak that plagued a majority of the game for the Minutewomen struck again, as they went scoreless in the last two minutes and 28 seconds, and the Hawks held on, winning 67-55.
“[Saturday] was a big time opportunity game for us,” head coach Mike Leflar said. “One of our goals as a team is to beat a top three team in the conference and Saint Joe’s has definitely been that all year … we had the opportunity and we just let it slip through our fingers … I was proud of the way we responded down the stretch.”
Much of the UMass roster struggled from the field on Saturday, with the team as a whole shooting 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range. These percentages would look much worse if not for the efforts of Olbrys, as she shot 10-of-11 from the field scoring 21 points. In addition to her points scored, she also had four rebounds, two assists, three blocks and two steals. Without Olbrys’ contribution to the scoring ledger, the Minutewomen would have shot 23.7 percent from the field.
“[Olbrys] … I wish we could have gotten her the ball a little bit more in a lot of different moments,” Leflar said. “She’s been our heart and soul throughout the season, she’s a big reason why we are who we are …”
Outside of the raw scoring numbers, much of the peripheral stats were relatively similar for both squads on Saturday. The Hawks did have six more rebounds than UMass, finishing with 39 to its 33, and they did take four more free throws than the Minutewomen with eight, but many other stats such as assists, turnovers, second chance points and bench points were all either equal or similar in Saturday’s matchup.
One stat that was not similar on Saturday was the amount of 3-pointers both taken and made during the contest. As mentioned, UMass shot 30 percent from long distance, connecting on three of its 10 attempts. Saint Joe’s more than tripled the Minutewomen’s output from beyond the arc on Saturday, connecting on 11 of its 27 attempts, a 24-point swing in a game that had a single-digit difference in the waning moments.
Just under half of those 3-point makes came from Laura Ziegler of Saint Joe’s who connected on five of her 11 attempts. She also led the Hawks and the game in scoring with 23 points. Three players scored in double figures for the Hawks in addition to Ziegler, with Rhian Stokes and Mackenzie Smith each scoring 11 while Gabby Casey scored 12.
“We came out really aggresively offensively and it was great to see the ball moving,” Saint Joseph head coach Cindy Griffin said. “Different people stepped up in the second half.”
UMass is next in action on Wednesday, Jan. 22, taking on Rhode Island. Tipoff is set for 6:35 p.m. from Kingston and the game can be viewed on ESPN+.
“Obviously we’re not quite there yet, but I feel like I know the things we need to improve on,” Leflar said. “I need the team to understand and continue to buy in to those things … their hard work has already paid off.”
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @Jdepin101.