Massachusetts Women’s Basketball defeated Saint Peter’s with a 56-44 win in their home opener on Monday night.
Junior guard Stefanie Kulesza earned her first career double-double in the game with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Her fellow returning teammate in guard Kristin Williams finished with a team-leading 19 points and shot 3-11 from three. With the loss of many key players this season, the duo filled in well becoming the leaders of the team.
“It feels great,” said Kulesza about achieving her first double-double. “I had a double-double in the Brown scrimmage and then the Assumption exhibition, so it’s something that I’ve experienced before. But again, I’m not really about personal stats. I’m just happy we got the [win] and worry about what I do later.”
Head coach Mike Leflar talked about the offense scoring by committee before tip-off and the Minutewomen demonstrated just that. Guard Lilly Ferguson, forward Bre Bellamy and center Lilly Taulelei combined for 17 points and provided some secondary scoring for the team.
While UMass had control throughout the game, they only had a nine-point lead heading to halftime. The offense stalled in the second quarter shooting 3-15 from the field and only scored eight points.
Luckily for the Minutewomen, their defense stepped up and held the Peacocks to six points. In the second quarter St. Peter’s was 3-12 from the field and were a combined 6-30 in the first half.
“There were plenty of examples in the first half [where] we were doing things that we hadn’t practiced. We were doing things that were out of character for us,” said Leflar about scoring only 26 points in the first half. “Let’s eliminate that and do what we do in practice every day because we’ve been doing it well.”
In the third quarter, the Minutewomen’s offense had a better showing as they started the quarter on a 6-2 run which forced the Peacocks to take a timeout. This was the best offensive quarter the Minutewomen displayed as they shot 8-17 from the field and outscored the Peacocks 17-12.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth contest that saw UMass shoot 3-10 from the field but they still ended up with a 12-point margin of victory.
The Minutewomen were only able to put up 56 points against the Peacocks who gave up the second-most points in their conference last season. After putting up 88 points against Assumption in an exhibition a few weeks ago, there is concern about the offense.
“We lacked a lot of driving today, and I think that’s what we need to build off of,” said Williams after the game. “A lot of people had the jitters [because] it’s the first official game. So for us, it’s just keep shooting, and we’re gonna get the right shot.”
Meanwhile, the Minutewomen’s defense set the tone for a rough shooting night for the Peacocks. St. Peter’s was 1-15 from three and gave up 23 turnovers. Nine of those turnovers came in the third quarter. UMass also had four blocks and seven steals.
After struggling on transition defense in the exhibition against Assumption because of their lack of defensive speed, the Minutewomen cleaned up those mistakes and put on a defensive clinic.
UMass is 1-0 to start the season and return to action on Nov. 9 as they go on the road for the first time to take on Northeastern on Thursday.
