With the University at Buffalo leading by two with just under 20 seconds left in overtime, Jordyn Beaty had an open lane to the basket that would have put the Bulls (26-7, 13-5 Mid American Conference) up four and essentially sealed the game, before Yahmani McKayle came from behind and altered the layup, clanking off the side of the rim. A loose ball battle engaged before Momo LaClair caught the ball, while falling out of bounds and found Lilly Ferguson, which secured possession for the Massachusetts women’s basketball team before head coach Mike Leflar called timeout.
The Minutewomen (17-15, 11-7 Atlantic 10) had a chance to take the lead or win with 18 seconds left on the clock. With LaClair making her way up court against a Buffalo full court press that had UMass in a straight jacket for the final 15 minutes of the game, she passed it off to McKayle at the top of the key, who took a screen from Jess Ross and curled into the paint before Sitota Gines collected her fifth steal of the game. Bulls head coach Becky Burke called timeout, and the Minutewomen couldn’t foul the ballhandler in the waning seconds of the contest. As the clock bled down to zero, Massachusetts’ season was over at the hands of its future MAC opponent, 84-82.
“Obviously difficult result for us [on Sunday], proud of the way we fought … getting the big lead heading into the fourth quarter, [I] wish we could just have some of those possessions back,” Leflar said. “Handling pressure has been a bit of an Achilles heel all season … it obviously crept up against Saint Louis in the conference tournament … I thought when we got into overtime we could swing the momentum, [we just didn’t make enough plays.”
It wasn’t the usual lineup that you saw for most of crunch time this season, as essentially the entire frontcourt for the Minutewomen fouled out, either late in the fourth quarter or overtime. Three starters weren’t able to finish the game in OT, as both Megan Olbrys and Chinenye Odenigbo picked up their fifth foul in overtime. Stefanie Kulesza had been battling through foul trouble for much of the game, picking up her fourth midway through the third quarter. Kulesza ended up logging 30 minutes for the game, fouling out with two minutes remaining in the fourth, unable to play in the five minute overtime. She ended the day as the teams second leading scorer, dropping 18 points, nine of those coming from first half 3-pointers.
Buffalo’s game-plan had been looking to limit the impact of points that came from post-play, which led to players being open either in the corners or the top of the key. Fifteen percent of Kulesza’s 3’s for the season came in Sundays contest, with Jess Ross being the other post-player to benefit from this defensive scheme, hitting just her third 3-pointer of the season against the Bulls.
“[I’m] really appreciative obviously of the influence that [Kulesza] had … I’ve continued to tell our team and remind our team [that Kulesza] just wants our program to be selfless, she’s used that word many times. And I think that’s the legacy she’ll leave behind … it’s a nice feeling from where I sit that our team treats each other that way and that’s what UMass basketball is all about,” Leflar said.
Heading into the fourth quarter, overtime didn’t seem like a possibility. Heading into halftime with a two-point lead, UMass doubled up Buffalo’s point total in the third quarter, a quarter that the Bulls had dominated all season, outscoring opponents by over 100 points in the third block of 10 minutes.
What started this domination from the Minutewomen was a foul called when Ferguson set a screen at midcourt for Allie Palmieri, leading to two shots from the charity stripe. Burke was unhappy with the call and let the officials hear it, which led to a technical. Suddenly, after Buffalo had brought the contest within eight points, one possession later UMass led by 13 and stamped out any hopes of getting this game into single digits before the last frame began.
Funnily enough, what led the Bulls furious comeback in the fourth quarter was a player fouling out, but it wasn’t Kulesza. It wasn’t any Minutewoman for that matter, it was Kirsten Lewis-Williams of Buffalo, picking up her fourth and fifth foul within 50 seconds of each other. Lewis-Williams’ emotional response on the bench seemed to light a fire beneath the Bulls, who went on a 22-6 run in the five minutes following Lewis-Williams’ fifth foul, taking the lead by two in the process.
Again, it seemed as though the notion of overtime was long gone, as UMass, during that stretch, committed 10 turnovers to Buffalo’s one. With the Minutewomen down three and the tightening defense of the Bulls becoming more suffocating as the quarter dragged on, Palmieri, who had shot 1-of-7 from 3 point land in the game up to this point, hit a long distance shot that knotted the game up again. When Buffalo marched down the court and Beaty hit a jumper from the painted area, it again seemed that overtime was but a dream for UMass, before Palmieri again responded with a mid-range jumper that put the game at 74 all.
Despite the loss and the last second turnover, McKayle proved once again why she was named the A-10 Rookie of the Year. Finishing with the most minutes played for the Minutewomen with 40, she led the team in points with 19, along with four rebounds and three assists. Four other players finished in double digits, Kulesza with her aforementioned 18, Palmieri with 12, Ferguson with 10 and Olbrys with 11 points and 13 rebounds, nearing triple-double territory with eight assists.
Chellia Watson, who scored her 2,000th career collegiate point in Sunday’s affair led the Bulls with 26 points, while they, like UMass, had five of their players score in double figures. Lani Cornfield led all players in assists with 15 to go with 12 points.
The offensive numbers as a whole look strikingly similar between the two squads, though the Minutewomen led for 32:45 of the contest. There were 12 ties during the 45 minutes of action, and the lead changed 10 times, with seven of those changes coming in the five minute overtime.
The biggest difference between these two future conference opponents is in their number of turnovers. UMass had a usually surefooted Buffalo team on its heels in the first quarter, forcing eight turnovers in the opening 10 minutes. As the game went on, the Bulls found their rhythm and committed 10 more over the next 35 minutes, finishing with 18 for the game.
It was a different story for the Minutewomen, where 15 of their 28 turnovers came in the last 15 minutes of the game. This was due to a full court press instituted by Buffalo, which was the catalyst for its ferocious comeback in the final frame of regulation. Between the fourth quarter and overtime, the Bulls outscored UMass by 18 points.
“We did enough to win the game offensively … we went up 16, [Buffalo] put a press on in desperation. It worked, and they stuck with it and rightfully so,” Leflar said.
With this loss, the Minutewomen’s time in the A-10 has come to an end. During its tenure, UMass won the conference championship once in 2022, beating Dayton in the championship final. Now, moving into the MAC, the Minutewomen will start a new era of women’s basketball for the University of Massachusetts.
“I do think we, as a team, reached our potential. And we’ll talk about how to keep growing in the offseason … I think this group really fought hard and worked hard, and saw all of the hard work pay off ,” Leflar said.
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @Jdepin101.
