The Massachusetts women’s basketball team took care of business against Stonehill in 86-40 fashion on Thursday. An all-around team performance put all but one player in the scoring column and a WNIT-record 62 total rebounds.
After a back-and-forth first quarter found UMass up 16-11, it took over in the second quarter. Megan Olbrys and Lilly Ferguson scored seven of their 20 and nine points in the quarter. The Minutewomen had 15 offensive rebounds, showing their significant size advantage. Stonehill center Kylie Swider spent the quarter on the exercise bike, which as the tallest player on the team, didn’t help the Skyhawks.
UMass had five offensive rebounds in one possession leading to two Olbrys second-chance free throws. The Minutewomen outscored Stonehill 21-10 in the quarter to go up 37-21, a lead they never squandered. UMass grabbed 29 offensive rebounds in total, a season-high, and 24 more than the Skyhawks five. The disparity on the glass proved to be the ultimate difference down the stretch, as the home side won the rebounding battle by a massive 62-20 margin.
Yahmani McKayle had a historic day, becoming just the third Minutewoman and first freshman in program history to record a triple-double, with 14 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. She joined Sam Breen and Jennifer Butler, two legends of the program, on that elusive list. The performance was also her first double-double.
Stefanie Kulesza and Olbrys joined in on the fun with stat lines of 15 points, 9 rebounds, 20 points and nine rebounds, respectively. Allie Palmieri also scored 11 points to round out the four Minutewomen in double-digits. UMass scored 56 points in the paint, accounting for over 65 percent of its total points. It scored 16 more points in the paint than the Skyhawks scored total in the contest.
A dominant 33-8 third quarter was an offensive barrage. The Minutewomen had all but one player get in the scoring column and drowned Stonehill to a 41-point deficit at 70-29.
“Just running, you know, obviously getting stops, defensive rebounds and running,” head coach Mike Leflar said. “I think that stretch after they called their first time out in the third quarter, we still went on like a [10-0 or 12-0] run, something like that because we were just getting stops, and we were keeping things simple, but we were working really hard in transition [and] outrunning them.”
In a tumultuous time of transfer portals and extra years of eligibility, more and more teams decline invitations to postseason tournaments. UMass was not going to turn down an opportunity to continue the campaign, even after a heartbreaking loss in the conference tournament.
”Yeah, full go,” Leflar said of the tournament invite. “Honestly, I talked with our captains before, probably a week or two before the A-10 tournament about the opportunities that could lie ahead. These are conversations that coaches probably didn’t have five or 10 years ago with teams. But our team was really excited to keep playing. They wanted to play. They were all in … I think we’ve practiced 91 or 92 times this year. This is why you practice, to play games. So we’re never going to turn down an opportunity to play more basketball.”
”There was just an unwell feeling in our stomach after the Saint Louis loss, and we wanted any opportunity we could take to change it around.” Olbrys said.
UMass moves onto the second round of the WNIT, where it will face future MAC rival Buffalo on Sunday, March 23. First tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Owen Shelffo can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @owen_shelffo
