The Massachusetts Women’s basketball team (15-13, 10-7 Atlantic-10) suffered an emotional loss to Rhode Island 42-40 on Sunday afternoon. The loss has mathematically eliminated UMass  for a chance at the double-bye in the A-10 tournament, and Rhode Island will hold the tiebreaker against them.

With 14 seconds remaining in the fourth, UMass trailed by only a point and had the chance to win the game. Stefanie Kulesza inbounded the ball to Megan Olbrys, who gave it back to her to set up the play. Olbrys set a screen at the elbow, for freshman Yahmani McKayle, to receive the ball from Kulesza. McKayle drove into a sea of blue jerseys and lost the ball out of bounds with four seconds to go in the game. 

“We had something set up, and we inbounded and they fouled,” head coach Mike Leflar said about the final play. “[We] probably could have run the same thing, but just thought let’s have the same set and just add a little wrinkle … there was an option for a drive and kick or a post up, ultimately we just never got to it … [Rhode Island] did a good job at defending us one-on-one all game.”

Sunday’s loss was emotional for many reasons. First, losing to the Rams twice this season in such close games is frustrating for the Minutewomen who felt they could have won both games. Second, Sunday was senior day for UMass to honor their seniors Stefanie Kulesza and Mikenzie Jones. Lastly, it was the last A-10 game at home for UMass as they move to the Mid-American Conference this fall. 

Emotions were high, and the Minutewomen played without a lot of fight and hunger, but they could not get the job done. UMass had great momentum-boosting plays such as Olbrys scoring seven points in the second quarter to give the Minutewomen a one-point lead going into halftime. Allie Palmieri and McKayle hit big threes in the third quarter to give UMass some momentum back after Rhode Island got out to a small lead. 

In her last game at the Mullins Center, Kulesza scored seven points in the fourth quarter and gave the Minutewomen their first lead since the end of the first half. However, the common theme in every close UMass game this season has been an inability to throw a knockout punch.

“Obviously a difficult loss because it was our second two-point loss to Rhode Island,” Leflar added. “I thought this one was different though, I thought it was there for us for the taking at many points, and we just never went and grabbed it and took it … you know games like that from a coach’s perspective to just unforced errors, turnovers, some coverages, just those seconds of lack of focus, ultimately [Rhode Island] hurt us tonight.”

In a low-scoring affair, Olbrys and Kulesza led the way in scoring for UMass. Both scored 11 with Olbrys grabbing seven rebounds and having three assists, while Kulesza had a double-double with 10 rebounds. On the other side, senior Sophie Phillips led the way in scoring for the Rams with 12 points, making all of them from three shooting 4-of-7. Anaelle Dutat finished the game with a double-double scoring 10 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Where UMass will look at the stat sheet to see where they lost this game will be turnovers. Both teams were guilty of committing turnovers, consisting of travels, offensive fouls and shot clock violations. The two teams combined for 40 turnovers with UMass committing only 17 to Rhode Island’s 23. However, the Rams got more points off their turnovers than the Minutewomen did 12-9. 

“For the love of God, take care of the basketball,” Rhode Island head coach Tammi Reiss said. “You’re on the road, and you commit 23 turnovers, you don’t win that game. But I will give UMass credit, their press, they’re 12, and they’re 22 disrupted our flow offensively … We didn’t have pace to get into what we wanted to run, they had us in a lot of late clock situations offensively.”

Another area where UMass lost in this game is the three-point shooting. As usual, UMass dominated with points in the paint, and they did that again on Sunday, winning that battle 28-14. However, Rhode Island made seven threes, compared to UMass making only two. That 14-point advantage UMass has in the paint is erased when the Rams have a 15-point advantage in such a close game, the margins matter big time. 

Come the A10 tournament, UMass can continue to dominate the paint but have to defend the perimeter better as their opponents shoot the second-best three-point percentage in the A-10.

“We’re going to be in [close games] in the next two weeks,” Leflar said. “We got to understand what it takes to close it out, and I’m excited about that … I hope we’re in two or three more like this because that means we keep playing.”

Up next for UMass is their final regular season game against George Washington down in D.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 12 p.m.