The Massachusetts Women’s Basketball team held on defeating La Salle 54-49 as they advanced to the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championship on Wednesday afternoon. 

The past two meetings between the two teams in regular season play saw UMass have leads going into the fourth quarter. However, in both those games La Salle came back and beat UMass. The Minutewomen found themselves in a similar situation on Wednesday, but this time they got their revenge. 

Entering the fourth quarter, the Minutewomen had a three-point lead. La Salle’s trap defense made it difficult for UMass to get their offense going and ended in a lot of possessions with the Minutewomen turning the ball over. With the offense struggling and déjà vu creeping in with the numerous times UMass has coughed up leads, the Minutewomen needed a hero to steer them to victory.

For the Minutewomen that was guard Tori Hyduke. The graduate student entered the fourth quarter with only four points to her name. In the fourth quarter, she went off and scored 10 points on 3-4 shooting. Hyduke was cool under pressure when she iced the game at the free throw line going 4-4. Hyduke’s 14 points against the Explorers is a season-high for her this season. 

Along with Hyduke, the Minutewomen got great performances from freshman center Chineye Odenigbo, guard Stefanie Kulesza and guard Alexsia Rose. Odenigbo has strived in her newfound starting role since she first started against VCU. In her five games as a starter, she has averaged nine points a game and 5.2 rebounds a game. Odenigbo kept the scoring up against the Explorers with 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds. 

Kulesza and Rose both scored 10 points in the win against La Salle. Kulesza pulled down 13 rebounds with three of those rebounds being offensive rebounds. She got two quick offensive rebounds in the first minute of the game. After winning the tip, Kulesza drove toward the basket missing at the rim, but got her own miss, and attempted another shot missing again. The third time’s a charm as Kulesza collected the ball for the bucket and the foul. She completed the three-point play, and her aggressiveness at the rim set the tone for the Minutewomen as they won the first quarter 14-7.

Despite getting the win, UMass struggled to shoot the ball, as they shot 39.3 percent from the floor, and were 3-11 from three. Although the Minutewomen turned the ball over 17 times, La Salle only scored 11 points off those turnovers and shot poorly in the game. The Explorers shot 32 percent from the field and shot 24 percent from three. La Salle is a team that relies on the three-ball and they went cold in the fourth quarter going 1-8 when they needed it the most.

One positive for the Minutewomen as they go deeper into the tournament is forward Bre Bellamy returning to action against La Salle. Bellamy added some scoring off the bench with five points, and a big three in the fourth quarter to extend the Minutewomen’s lead to nine with 4:37 to go. 

The Minutewomen will have no time to rest as they are back in action on Thursday as they face the No. 5 seeded Duquesne.