AMHERST – After a well-paced first quarter, the UMass women’s basketball team kicked into gear.
The Minutewomen trailed Dartmouth by one after the opening 10 minutes then ripped off an 8-2 run to wrest control of the game for good in a 77-58 win Wednesday at the Mullins Center in their non-conference finale.
“I knew at some point in time we were going to take over. We weren’t playing well, and that happens,” said UMass coach Tory Verdi, who was celebrating his birthday. “You can’t turn the ball over and not execute and expect to take the lead. I knew it was a matter of time.”
Point guard Ber’Nyah Mayo opened the second quarter with a go-ahead jumper to make it 18-17 UMass, and the Minutewomen pulled away. They revved their lead as high as 19 in the third quarter after Mayo slithered through the Dartmouth defense and spun a layup off the window through a foul with 3 seconds on the clock. She missed the free throw, but UMass led 54-35.
“Once we’re on, we’re on,” Mayo said.
The advantage ballooned to 23 (77-54) after a Laila Fair layup with 1:07 left.
The Minutewomen comfortably out shot the Big Green, hitting 52 percent from the field while holding Dartmouth to 39 percent. They pressed an advantage inside, scoring 56 points in the paint, doubling Dartmouth’s 28.
Four Minutewomen reached double figures, led by Sam Breen’s 20. She also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season to go along with five steals. Makenna White (five rebounds) added 15, while Mayo (seven assists, four rebounds) tossed in 17. Sydney Taylor contributed 12 points
UMass (10-3) struggled possessing the basketball, turning it over 21 times, which led to 21 Dartmouth points. The Minutewomen did score 29 points from 26 Big Green turnovers and had 24 fastbreak points.
“At times we weren’t connecting. We want to come out and we want to be up 20 points in the first two minutes and we rush,” Verdi said. “We’ve got to let the game come to us. At times we forced it.”
The victory tied UMass’ all-time series with Dartmouth, which has been contested since 1981, 10-10.
UMass will open Atlantic 10 play against St. Bonaventure at home Saturday at 2 p.m. The Minutewomen are the defending conference tournament champions.
“I can’t believe conference season’s here already,” Verdi said. “If we want to defend our title, we got to show up. We got to have more energy, more want to do it than our opponent and I expect that.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.