AMHERST — At some point, Sam Breen ran out of words to describe what exactly VCU did to the UMass offense.
She paused, she thought about it and she tried to stall, but there wasn’t any other way to describe how the Rams put the clamps on the Minutewomen. It wasn’t anything UMass hadn’t seen in previous games, but as Wednesday’s game progressed, UMass’ confidence on offense started to wane. VCU felt emboldened on the defensive end and continued to be physical and knock the Minutewomen off their spots and deny them space with the ball.
UMass failed to reach 30 percent shooting for the first time in more than a year and the Minutewomen’s defense eventually gave out in a 61-46 loss to VCU at the Mullins Center.
“They were really guarding us and not letting us really get open,” Breen said. “It was hard to feel open even if we were open. They did a really good job defensively guarding us.”
UMass (14-5, 4-2 Atlantic 10) came into the game aware it needed to deal with VCU’s size and athleticism, but it failed to execute when faced with that challenge. The Rams (10-8, 5-0) disrupted everything the Minutewomen love to do on offense, slowing down their penetration to the basket and denying Breen and freshman center Maeve Donnelly space around the hoop. UMass struggled to simply throw an entry pass into its forwards in the post, but when it was successful, there wasn’t the room for either of them to face the hoop for a layup.
The Rams were so effective at crowding the Minutewomen’s post players that UMass had trouble throwing passes back to the perimeter. Many of those kickouts were intercepted and taken the other way for layups while the rest showcased the lack of confidence UMass had in itself on offense. Numerous times the Minutewomen passed up open looks for a chance at an even better shot, but that opportunity rarely arose and UMass ended up taking a more difficult shot.
“Every time Sam got a catch, she was swarmed by two or three defenders, we’ve got to make defenses pay from that and reverse it and skip it,” UMass coach Tory Verdi said. “They rushed us, we’d execute and we’d have a wide open shot and for whatever reason we wouldn’t shoot it and put the ball on the floor, we allowed the defense to recover then we would shoot it.”
The lack of scoring didn’t affect UMass’ defense much in the second and third quarters as it locked down enough to keep the game within striking distance. VCU didn’t extend the lead beyond six points until its final shot of the third quarter when Nyra Williams hit a 3-pointer from the corner. It appeared the Minutewomen responded when Destiney Philoxy banked in a three-quarters court shot at the buzzer, but the referees ruled the ball was released too late.
It was only then that the plethora of empty possessions took its toll and VCU made 8 of 9 shots in the fourth quarter to pull away for the comfortable victory.
“I don’t think initially it (affected us),” Breen said, “but as possessions kept coming up empty for us, that started to get to us a little bit. We started not playing how we usually do, which obviously came back to really hurt us, and it started snowballing after possession after possession.”
The Minutewomen led for most of the first half on the back of a strong opening quarter on both ends of the court. UMass was able to work in transition and free itself for open shots as Philoxy and senior Hailey Leidel both scored eight points and made two 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes. The Minutewomen led 18-9 after the first quarter and it felt like they were going to send a statement to the rest of the Atlantic 10.
But UMass made just 1 of 14 from the floor in the second quarter. The Minutewomen also scored just 14 points off VCU’s 15 first-half turnovers and just three second-chance points off nine offensive rebounds, valuable points that could have made the difference in helping keep the confidence high entering halftime.
“They answered the challenge of starting the game off with great energy and want-to in the first period of the game,” Verdi said. “They did exactly what we wanted them to do, then from that point on we lost our identity.”
UMass has now lost back-to-back games after winning 11 straight, and Verdi called Wednesday’s loss a lesson for his team. Breen’s loss for words to describe VCU’s defense was matched by her defiance that this one game won’t define the season for the Minutewomen.
In order for that to happen, though, they’ll need to recharge during Thursday’s off day and come back focused on George Washington during practice Friday. Philoxy said she hopes the energy and attitude on Friday will be more indicative of the type of team UMass plans to be this season.
“We just need to show up in practice, whoever shows up is who’s going to play,” Philoxy said. “One loss isn’t going to hurt us, it’s how we come back from this. We’re going to show the next team that even though we lost, (we’re going to play like) every game is our last.”
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January 23, 2020 at 09:09AM
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VCU's physicality too much for UMass in 61-46 defeat - GazetteNET
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