After a dismal first half, down 45 - 27, UMass rallied to within a point late but fell to #13 Iowa 76 - 71.  Sam Breen had 4 points at the half, but finished with 21, and 12 rebounds.  She missed a game tying 3 pointer in the last minute.  Taylor, the leading scorer, didn't make a field goal.  Minutewomen are now 7 - 1.  
In the Cavalier Classic, URI suffered first loss to undefeated Long Beach State.  Both the Rams and Richmond (3-3) beat UVA.  Mason (5-3) won the Navy tournament, and St Bona (5-1) also won.  St Joe's fell to 1-6,

Monday scores:  URI 66 - 58 over UMass in Kingston.  LaSalle 69 - 65 at St Joe's.

Minutewomen had their usual slow start, trailing 24 - 8 after 1 quarter and down by as many as 20.  Tahane was 4 - 6,  She finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists.  Cairns made a couple of threes early, and hit a couple of clutch threes in the fourth quarter.   She finished with 21 points, on 5  - 12 behind the arc and 8 - 15 overall.  For the game, Foppossi had 12 points/8 boards and Elmore had 9/9.  They combined for 4 - 10 from the line, including 1 - 4 late, Elmore missing 2 but Foppossi getting the rebound and making her second of 2.  Rams had plus 15 rebound margin,  boxing out well and hitting th boards.   

UMass turned up the defense in the 3rd quarter which they won 19 - 9.  Breen carried the team on her back for the comeback, with help from the guards.  Breen had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.  Philoxy had 6 and Mayo the other 3.  UMass got even closer in the 4th but could never pull ahead.  Besides Cairns, Foppossi and Williams had clutch late 3s; the only field goal for Williams.  Neither team helped themselves at the line, both finishing 9 - 15, and missing a bunch in the 4th quarter.

Breen finished with 25 points, 13 boards and 4 steals, almost half the team's total points and rebounds.  Philoxy had 11 points and 5 assists,  Mayo scored 10.  Ngalakulondi had foul trouble and had just 3 boards.
Taylor had 2 3s in the first quarter, but that was all her scoring.  She's had a few games like that.

I focus on Breen's positioning for rebounds since she is among the national leaders.  She doesn't have a lot of hops, and while she's strong for her size, she's not gong to push around many opponents.  In the second half, she missed a 14' jumper from near the foul line.  She worked her way around the crowd at the basket, grabbed the tipped ball and scored from in close.  She's also tough.  Late in the game she was fouled on a put back attempt, fell on her back and hit her head on the floor.  She was stunned for a few seconds, then got up and knocked down both free throws.  She had 9 in a row after missing the 5 in a row at VCU.  That made the score 58 - 56, but it never got closer.

Dayton and URI lead the league at 3 - 0 with Davidson next at 2 - 0.  LaSalle moved up to a 4th place tie with Fordham and UMass at 2 - 1.  GW is 1 of 4 winless teams, with a gauntlet of Fordham, UMass and Davidson before the schedule gets a bit easier.  A healthy roster would be nice.
 

Last edited by WMC (1/18/2022 10:49 am)

Friday night scores:

St Joe's 77, St Bona 70.     Hawks are 6 - 10, 2 - 2.  Bonnies 8 - 8, 0 - 5.  St Joe's had 3 frosh in double figures including 25 from MacKenzie

LaSalle 63, Mason 53.  Explorers 10 - 6, 3 - 1.  Mason also winless in league at 0 - 4; 6 - 10 overall.

Fordham 63, Davidson 57.   Rams got 3rd league road win, are 13 - 4, 4 - 1.  Davidson drops to 11 - 5, 2 - 2,  Fordham had 56 points from 3 players - including 20 from DeWolfe.

 

Since I never got around to posting last week's scores, here's a summary of those games and the standings at about the half way mark of league play,

Dayton and URI are on top at 6 - 0, each with 9 game winning streaks and just 3 non-conference losses.  Dayton beat Fordham by 4 on Sunday with an 11 - 0 run to end the game.  And crushed Richmond on Wednesday.  Rhode Island beat Davidson on Sunday and won at UMass on Wednesday,  Dayton and URI play each other twice at the end of the season.  VCU's game at Kingston on Sunday has been canceled for weather reasons.  It was scheduled for CBSSN.  Supposed to get more than a foot of snow on the coast, all the way inland to the Connecticut River.  UMass should be in Philly already for their Sat game at St Joe's.

Holding down the other two double bye spots are Fordham, 5 - 2, which beat St Joe's on Wednesday; and LaSalle, 4 - 2, with a win over Richmond and loss to St Bona in the past week.

Davidson, UMass and VCU are tied at 3 - 3, with St Louis at 2 - 2.  St Louis beat VCU on Wednesday.

Next comes Richmond and Duquense at 3 - 4 followed by St Joe's, 2 - 3, and Bonnies at 2 - 5.  Both the Bonnies and then Duquense beat Mason.  

As xAC noted, GW and Mason are both winless.

UMass had another slow start offensively hosting Rhode Island, but stayed close with some tough defense.  Rams pulled away in the third quarter.  Breen only had 6/6 while Taylor only had 5 points.  The sophomores Mayo and White both were in double figures.  UMass has lost at home to BC, Dayton, and URI.  They host Fordham later in the season.

With UMass off for almost a week, they travel to 1 win Dartmouh on Tuesday to make up a postponed game. They also have a 2/11 Friday home game with George Mason as a make up game. as part of a 4 games in 8 days stretch.  A game with LaSalle has not been rescheduled yet.  I believe that at least one postponed GW game has not been rescheduled.  It looks like all teams may not be able to play a full schedule of league games.

In other Wednesday games besides GW's heartbreaking loss 50 - 49 to Bonnies, who are now up to 3 - 6 in conference:


Dayton 60    Duquense 54       Dukes led at the end of each of the first 3 quarters.  Flyers outscored them
                                                21 - 6 in fourth.  Flyers won 11th in a row and at 8 - 0, keep 1/2 gsme league
                                                lead over Rhode Island.  Dayton had 4 players score between 11 and 13.  
                                                Rebound margin was 47 - 24.  Duquense had 2 offensive rebounds.

Rhode Island 60   St Louis 52.  10th win in a row.  Tahane had 18 points.  Foppossi and Elmore each had 10    
                             rebounds.  Only 5 players scored for URI, each one playing more than 30 minutes.     
                             Rams only committed 5 fouls in the game.

LaSalle 66    St Joe's 58        Explorers now 15 - 8, 6 - 3.  (Fordham is 6 - 2.)

VCU 72      Richmond 68       VCU tied with UMass at 4 - 3.  Spiders and Dukes next at 4 - 5.
   
Mason 58   Davidson   50     Wildcats drop to 3 -5.    Mason joins St Louis and St Joes as 2 win teams.


Colonials played hard against Bonnies.  They rebounded well and scrambled for loose balls.  Hard to win a close game going 0 - 3 from line in 4th quarter and with late, careless turnovers.


 

Last edited by WMC (2/03/2022 2:05 pm)

Dayton 84   Mason 44.    Makira Cook had shooting fine of the day with 29 points on 13 - 15 overall , 3 - 4 beyond the arc, in 25 minutes.
Dayton now 9 - 0.  Mason stays at 2 wins with St Louis which also lost today.

St Bonaventure 74  Richmond  64.  Asianae Johnson had 28.     Both tied with Duquense at 4 - 6.

Fordham   59.  Duquesne 52.  Rams, 7 - 2,  led by Dingle with 24.

UMass  69   St Louis 66.     UMass had another slow start, caught up by halftime.  Billikens missed a 3 pointer to tie at the buzzer.   Shootout between Harbison (27 points) and Taylor with 22.  Followed by Philoxy with 20, 6 assists and 3 steals but 5 turnovers, and McNeal with 15 for St Louis.  Breen and Flowers were each 10/9.  Both had rough shooting afternoons.  Breen, 5 - 17, had 2 baskets early, then didn't score again until 4th quarter.  She got 2 crucial field goals in the last minute.  Breen had career high 7 assists, 3 steals, but 4 turnovers.  UMass tied with VCU at 5 -3 for 4th place with LaSalle at 5 - 4.

UMass 87, George Mason 59 in noontime game.  Typical slow start was limited to 6 -2 Mason lead (Scott 6, Breen 2,). Then UMass took off, leading 20 - 10 after first qtr and 39 - 20 at the half.  Breen and Taylor each had 10 at the half.
Taylor dropped 4 3s in the 3rd and a total of 14.  She finished with 27.  Breen finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.  Makenna White had career high 13 points.  Philoxy had 6 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals.  Alexzeya Brooks had career high of 11 points.  
Scott ended with 15 for Mason,  Lawhorne had 19, maybe all the the 2nd half.  Sorry, I'm not going through the entire play by play,  She made 5 3s, all in the second half.  Patriots didn't make any 3s in first half.  Jameson had 10 points, including 2 baskets from beyond the arc.  When she wasn't throwing the ball away, 4 turnovers.    Sloppy performance from Patriots, not helped by  only 6 - 15 from the line.
UMass is 19 - 5, 7 - 3 in A10.  Highest ever win total is 20.  League record is 2 - 2 at home and 5 - 1 on the road.  Mason is 2 - 8.

UMASS OVERLOAD:  They are only dressing 8 players.  Shavonne Smith, Towson transfer, left the team.  She started the season as 2nd player of the bench, after whoever didn't start between Ngalakolundi and White.  Smith had her productive moments, but she was eventually supplanted as 2nd sub by Kulesza, who produced some points and started playing hard nose defense.  Kuleska has a fracture in her left hand/wrist, although she could be back for the end of the season.  Pruitt (UTEP) is the other experienced sub.  She's been getting more minutes and can be productive.  4 points today.  Brooks is the only freshman currently able to play.  Not sure what's up with the other 3.
Breen made her first 3 pointer, after about 15 misses, in the second half.  She finished 6 - 13, plus 2 - 2 FT.  She's getting more assists as teams double-team her.  Brooks had been tentative about shooting, with her minimal playing time.  In 2nd quarter, she and Breen ran in tandem down the court with a Mason player between them,  Breen passed up a shot attempt and passed to Brooks for her first points of the game.  She was more willing to shot after that.  Brooks hit her first career 3 later and finished with the 11, showing a lot of quickness.
UMass is ahead of VCU. by 1/2 in the standings, in 4th.  There are 2 nationally televised games at noontime on Sunday.  Duquesne at UMass (CBSSN) and VCU at Dayton (ESPNU.). Both Dayton and URI are getting goes notes.  But Charlie Crean (sp?) had URI in the first 4 out.  Usual power conference suck-up.
UMass has senior day on Sunday, and list Philoxy and Pruitt as being honored, not Breen.  So she might be coming back for another season.  Breen is in grad school and has a couple of local NLI deals.  IPhiloxy in playing her 4th season.  Not sure about her eligiblity.

 

Last edited by WMC (2/11/2022 7:58 pm)

Sunday scores:     URI 58, Fordhan 43.
                              VCU 60, Dayton 58.  Rams outscored Flyers by 10 in second half in Dayton.
                              St Joe's 50, Mason 45
                              Richmond 75, LaSalle 58. Struggling Explorers have lost 3 in a row.
                              UMass 89, Duquesne 59.  On her senior night, Destiny. Philoxy filled the stat sheet with 26        
                               points (11 - 17 including 4 - 7 behind the arc,) 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals.  The     
                                other starting guard Mayo also had 9 rebounds to go with 11 points.  Taylor had 18.
                                 Breen was 13/4 with 6 assists.  Tess Meyers had 19 (6 - 14 from beyond the arc) and
                                  fellow freshman Magan McConnell had 12 for Duquense.  Meyers played with Breen in         
                                high school, separated by 3 classes, SR/FR.

--------------------------
With GW's win today, they pull ahead of Mason (2-8) with a 3 - 8 record.  Davidson, St Bona and Duquense also have 8 losses, to go with 4 wins.  St Louis is 3 - 7.  
Richmond is 5 - 7.  LaSalle and St Joe's tied at 5 - 6.  
UMass, Fordham and VCU are tied for 3rd at 7 - 3.  The latter 2 each still have games in Amherst, Fordham on Wed.  CORRECTION - The A10 website standings list UMass as 7 - 3, 19 - 5.  Their record actually is  8 - 3, 20 - 5 so alone in 3rd place by 1/2 game.
Rhode Island is now in first at 10 - 0, with Dayton at 10 - 1.  They play their first of 2 on Wed
---------------
Also Sunday, Northwestern beat #4 Michigan in 2 OT, 71 - 69.  Wildcats are 14 - 9, 6 - 6.  Penn State is 3 - 11
9-15.    There's a chance to see Caitlyn Clark tonight on ESPN2 at 9 pm tonight as #13 Maryland visits #22 Iowa.
 

Last edited by WMC (2/15/2022 9:14 am)

Saturday scores:

Dayton (12-1) 48, Fordham (7-5) 47.  Rams held to 4 points in 2nd quarter.  Rallied to outscore Flyers 19 - 9 in fourth.  Fordham was 5 - 16 FT.  Giacone led Dayton with 19.  DeWolfe had 9 in 4th for Fordham, totaled 21 on 9 - 24 (2-11 3s.)

LaSalle (7 - 6) 73,  St Louis (4-8).  65.  Spruill led Explorers with 17 points among 5 in double figures.  Harbison did play for Billikens, scoring 21.

VCU (9-3) 67, Mason (2-11) 56.  Rams won 6th straight.  Scoring leaders were Robinson with 18 and
Te-Biasu with 17.

Rhode Island (11-1) 69, Richmond (5-9) 66.  Tahane had 18 points.  Emma Squires scored 27 for Spiders on 10-11 shooting, including 7-8 from beyond the arc.

Last edited by WMC (2/20/2022 9:38 am)