The Massachusetts Women’s basketball team (13-11, 8-5 Atlantic-10) could not get their offense going in a 56-38 loss to Davidson on Saturday afternoon. The loss snapped the Minutewomen’s four-game win streak.
Davidson made it tough for the UMass offense to get going. The Wildcats were aggressive switching matchups on defense, causing confusion, and disrupting offensive rhythm for the Minutewomen. Davidson played aggressively by guarding UMass well in the post and clogging driving lanes into the paint.
“We got Davidson’s best today, and quite frankly just didn’t respond,” head coach Mike Leflar said. “I have to do a better job preparing us for Davidson switching everything … there were moments where we reverted back to some old habits from earlier in the season we played a lot of one-on-one, the ball [didn’t move] … at times we got frustrated out there and we just lacked what it took today to really get back in the game.”
The third quarter was the only quarter where UMass played their best. Davidson got out to a 15-point lead, but the Minutewomen were able to cut the lead down to seven. Yahmani McKayle played a big part in this getting a steal and drawing fouls that helped spark an 8-0 run towards the end of the third quarter.
Entering the fourth quarter, Davidson had not made a field goal in seven minutes, but that was put to an end after a made layup by Millie Prior and was followed up with a three by Mallorie Haines off a UMass turnover. The small 5-0 run to start the quarter gave the Wildcats a 13-point lead and sealed the game for them. UMass shot 10% in the fourth quarter and only managed to score six points.
“We made mistakes that I thought were very controllable,” Leflar said. “When to double, when not to double, where to double from … there were some miscommunication and misassignments and when you’re not scoring those things get magnified.”
Overall, the Minutewomen shot 26% from the field and 33% from three. Davidson didn’t shoot particularly well in the second half but got it going in the first half. The Wildcats shot 52% from the field and 50% from three. This led to Davidson going into halftime with a 13-point lead.
McKayle led the team in points with 14 shooting 4-of-16 from the field and led the team in assists with three. Davidson made it tough for Megan Olbrys to score in the post who struggled with the swarm of red jerseys she had on her. Leflar echoed the importance of Olbrys after the game.
“Our offense starts with getting the ball to [Olbrys] and seeing how teams are going to defend, and I think that’s what has been opening up a lot of things for us,” Leflar said. “For us to have 27 shot attempts [in the first half] and I think we had seven attempts by our post players at the half, that’s not good enough … if we’re taking 27 shot attempts, 14 or 15 should be from our post players because we want to be really balanced anyway.
Olbrys finished with seven points shooting 2-of-5 from the field and grabbing five boards. She struggled at the free-throw line, converting three of eight attempts. Additionally, Olbrys fouled out of the game in the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
One positive from the contest was UMass forcing Davidson into 23 turnovers. The Minutewomen got 15 points off those 23 turnovers, which disappointed Leflar as they left some easy points on the board. On the other hand, UMass didn’t help themselves either, committing 19 turnovers with Davidson scoring 17 points off of them.
UMass has a chance to redeem themselves as they travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday to take on Duquesne at 6 p.m. With five games left in the season, every game is important for UMass to win to achieve a good position for the A-10 tournament.
