AMHERST — Sydney Taylor dished off a perfect pass to Angelique Ngalakulondi, who put up a layup to give UMass its first bucket of the second quarter. That hoop kick-started a 31-0 run for the Minutewomen, which held Maine scoreless through the entirety of the second and for two minutes and 23 seconds of the third quarter.
UMass put on a clinic against Maine on Monday night at the Mullins Center, steamrolling their opponent in a 67-54 non-conference victory, the second of the season.
“I feel like being systematic on defense, sticking to our game plan, that was working really well for us,” UMass guard Sydney Taylor said on her team’s impressive performance. “Also crashing the O-boards. We definitely had a height advantage against them. So crashing the O-boards and trying to get as many offensive rebounds as possible.”
Sam Breen and Ngalakulondi both posted double-doubles. Ngalakulondi posted 12 points and 10 boards while Breen finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Breen was two assists shy of a triple-double, leading the team with eight. Taylor played one of the best all-around basketball games of her career, leading the team with 18 points and adding seven rebounds and four assists. Ber’Nyah Mayo added 11 points and six boards in the win, Makennah White posted 11 points and seven boards, and Destiney Philoxy had five assists and four steals.
UMass out-rebounded the Black Bears by almost a 2-1 margin, finishing the contest with a 50-28 edge. UMass head coach Tory Verdi has emphasized to his team how important that component is to their game plan, and the Minutewomen have been executing the last couple of games.
“In the locker room, (Verdi) has definitely circled it. It’s been in bold, just rebound, box out and rebound. We got our being out-rebounded, the exhibition game and the first game so we needed to change that. Then we out rebounded the No. 2 rebounding team in the country [Tennessee], so that was a big push for us,” Taylor said. “We have a lot of height, we’re strong, we know we can do it. We’ve just got to lock in and box out and get those boards offensively and defensively.”
The first quarter opened with both teams trading a pair of buckets. Ngalakulondi finished off a perfect passing play with her second layup of the night to make it 6-4 and jumpstart a 7-0 run, giving the Minutewomen an 11-4 lead. Maine pulled back within two with a triple from Olivia Rockwood and a layup from Anne Simon, but a pair of layups from White and Mayo gave UMass its six-point lead back. Rockwood sank a buzzer-beater to end the quarter, making it 15-12 UMass.
The second quarter was some of the best basketball UMass has ever played. Maine could not find the net, going 0-for-12 on the floor. Meanwhile, the Minutewomen out-rebounded their opponent 16-3 and dominated the paint, scoring 18 of their 24 points there.
“We changed up what we do defensively for this purpose and it was the right decision… so good one for the coaching staff because you have no idea how long we debate on things that we should change up for a specific opponent and we were right on the mark,” Verdi said. “We came together on switches. They’re trying to slip on us, dribble handoffs, they do a great job of shooting the three-ball, especially on dribble handoffs, we were there. We executed and follow the game plan to a tee for the first three periods.”
Even when Verdi went to his bench, the Minutewomen kept rolling – Makennah White, Alexzeya Brooks and Stefanie Kulesza all saw significant minutes in the second, and were called on more often as the game went on.
Maine found its footing in the third quarter, stringing together a couple of runs in an effort to close the gap. The Black Bears strung together a pair of 9-0 runs in the third, but White sank three layups and Breen, Taylor, Ngalakulondi and Philoxy all chipped in to give the home team a 54-30 lead heading into the final frame.
UMass had a scare early in the fourth when White went down and stayed on the floor for a while. She was able to get up and walk off under her own power, and subbed back in four minutes later. Leading by nearly 20 points, Verdi subbed in a full roster of bench players in to finish out the game. White, Brooks, Kulesza, Kristin Williams and Piath Gabriel closed out the win for the home team.
Next up for the Minutewomen (2-1) is a trip to Harvard on Friday.