The Massachusetts women’s basketball team went into Saturday’s contest in the thick of the Atlantic 10 standings and came out with just 38 points on 26 percent shooting. Defensively, it forced 23 turnovers, but it couldn’t slow down a Davidson slew of 10 3-pointers at a 40 percent rate. Davidson went on to win 56-38.
”As we’ve been winning games and on a nice stretch and a nice streak, obviously people in the conference are taking notice and I just shared with [the team] from here on out, we are [going to] get everyone’s best. And especially our next couple games we’re going to be starting to talk about fighting for seeding and we got Davidson’s best [Saturday],” head coach Mike Leflar said.
Davidson (13-11, 8-4 A-10) did indeed play its best game Saturday, knocking down 10 threes and shutting down Minutewomen (13-11. 8-5 A-10) star post player Megan Olbrys. Olbrys fouled out and had just seven points, three of which came from the charity stripe. Olbrys attempted just five shots.
”For us to have 27 shot attempts, and I think we had seven attempts by our post players at the half, that’s not good enough. I shared that with the team at the half. I mean, if we’re taking 27 shot attempts, boy, 14 or 15 should be from our post players because we want to be really balanced,” Leflar remarked.
Olbrys has been having a tremendous season averaging 13.4 points and 8.9 rebounds and has been previously selected as the A-10 player of the week. Davidson’s game plan was clear on Saturday, make her a non-factor, a trend that will likely continue for UMass going forward.
”[Olbrys] was a really big part of our prep in terms of like, she’s such a good finisher. I had the St. Joe’s prep a couple of weeks ago and got to see her go 10-of-11 against really good post players. So we definitely wanted to kind of push her out, make things hard for her and try to crowd the paint a little bit,” Wildcats associate head coach James Janssen stated. Janssen filled in for head coach Gayle Fulks who didn’t travel with the team to Amherst.
The third quarter presented as UMass’ best chance to get back into the game as it went on a 8-0 run in just a minute and a half of game time, cutting the WIldcats lead from 15 to seven. The Minutewomen kept Davidson to just seven points on 16.7 percent shooting and forced six turnovers in the quarter but didn’t capitalize offensively, going into the fourth quarter down eight.
“ I was happy with the turnovers. Unfortunately, we could never turn those into points or easy baskets. I thought we didn’t do a very good job executing in transition and we made some poor decisions, which we’ll look at and work on,” Leflar said.
Saturday’s contest was also the Minutewomen’s annual National Women and Girls in Sports day, a long-standing celebration that culminates in a postgame clinic for local girls around the area.
”It’s a lot to represent kids that look up to you, who want to be in your footsteps one day, it really means a lot, especially [Saturday]. I, obviously, coming off a loss, it’s really important to put a big smile on your face, because these kids come to support you all the time, win or lose, no matter what. It’s really important to me, and I know it’s important to my team, too,” Olbrys said about the annual day.
UMass now turns its attention to a bout with Duquesne on Wednesday Feb. 12 in Pittsburgh. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Duquesne, much like the Minutewomen, are in the middle of the pack fighting for a chance at a double bye in March’s A-10 tournament. A huge opportunity for both teams to pick up a huge win, the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Owen Shelffo can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @owen_shelffo
