Throughout the first half of the season, the UMass women’s basketball team relied on a high-flying offense for success. The Minutewomen were the Atlantic 10’s highest scoring team for much of the season.
That high-scoring offense struggled on Friday in a loss against Saint Joseph’s and the offensive woes carried over into Sunday’s game against La Salle, as the Minutewomen were unable to rebound from a slow start and ultimately fell 69-63 at the Mullins Center.
It was the third straight loss for UMass.
“I thought they were more aggressive defensively,” Minutewomen coach Tory Verdi said. “For whatever reason offensively we were tentative. We have to figure this part out. We were hesitant instead of looking at what the defense was doing. We didn’t take advantage of that. We didn’t play to our strengths or off instincts either.”
The Explorers (9-8, 5-5 A-10) jumped on UMass early, racing out to a 16-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and ballooning out to 26-10 midway through the second period as La Salle shot an impressive 6-for-11 from 3 in the first half.
A fierce rally to end the half by the Minutewomen (10-5, 6-4 A-10) cut the Explorers’ lead to 29-22. UMass continued to fight to get back in the game, keeping La Salle’s advantage to single digits for most of the final 16 minutes of action, but it was never unable to overcome the slow start and take a lead in the second half.
“We gave La Salle confidence right from the jump,” Verdi said. “We didn’t defend their motion offense to where they got five 3’s and put up some points right away and started to feel good about themselves. We have to do something different because how we’ve come out the last three games, we have to make adjustments.”
A strong third quarter put La Salle ahead 49-38 going into the fourth quarter. UMass rallied late, cutting the deficit to 66-61 with 40 seconds to go but that was the closest the Explorers let it get.
Kayla Spruill poured in game-high 21 points for La Salle while Claire Jacobs joined her in double-figures with 16 points. The Minutewomen were led on offense by Sam Breen’s 15 points, with Sydney Taylor and Ber’Nyah Mayo adding 11 points apiece.
UMass’ Destiney Philoxy exited the game midway through the third quarter with an injury and Taylor fouled out early in the fourth quarter, which made mounting a comeback that much tougher.
“We worked hard and just didn’t get the results we wanted,” Verdi said. “We just need to do a better job of scoring the basketball. Our three leading scorers [Breen, Philoxey and Taylor] went 9-for-34. Can’t go 9-for-34. Just can’t. We can’t go 20-for-58 from the field. We can’t do that. We have to figure out a way to score the ball.”
While the offense struggled to find a rhythm, UMass also struggled to keep La Salle away from the free throw line. The Explorers shot 21 shots from the charity stripe in the second half alone, knocking down 16 of them.
In a game where the Minutewomen were struggling to tighten the gap in the second half, the consistent fouling allowed La Salle to stay in control.
“Today we would bring it within two, three possessions then it would open up more which was frustrating,” Breen said. “It was a little frustrating because it was a lot of free throws. We need to play defense for the full 30 seconds, not 25 seconds and bailing them out in the end with a foul. We need to focus on locking down for 30 seconds.”
Turnovers also plagued UMass on Sunday. The Minutewomen dominated on the boards, holding a 46-28 rebound advantage but were unable to make the Explorers pay in transition by forcing errant passes.
Verdi said he feels his team needs to get back on the same page and play with confidence.
“It’s playing together,” Verdi said. “In our second game against Saint Louis and our last game against St. Joe’s, I don’t think we played together consistently. When we did, we executed and scored. At times, we were going off that path and trying to do things ourselves and that’s where we’re running into a brick wall and turning the ball over and doing things that are uncharacteristic.”
UMass takes the court again on Friday against George Washington at the Mullins Center, with tipoff set for 5 p.m.