Women's Basketball: Defense flusters UNH, leads to victory

If defense doesn't win basketball games, it at least plays a large factor in the outcome.

In the first half alone, the Massachusetts women's basketball team had 11 points off of turnovers against New Hampshire.

The Minutewomen (1-1) executed their press to perfection for the entire game. The Wildcats (0-1) seemed flustered when trying to get the ball to standout freshman guard Kelsey Hogan. Hogan had a poor handle on the ball during the game and lost focus because of the defensive pressure that she saw from UMass.

Hogan had a team-high eight turnovers and went 1-for-11 in the game.

Redshirt sophomore Diatiema Hill led the defensive effort for the Minutewomen.

Junior guard Kim Benton, known for her assists, had three defensive rebounds and two steals. By game's end, four out of UMass' starting five had multiple steals and at least one defensive rebound.

UNH had little chance on offense because the Maroon and White denied the Wildcats on the offensive glass. Overall, the Minutewomen outrebounded New Hampshire, 44-39.

"I was really happy with the first half when we came out," UMass coach Marnie Dacko said of how the Minutewomen utilized the press on defense to stifle UNH and prevent them from getting into an offensive rhythm. "I felt we had an opportunity to put them away in the first 5 minutes of the game. The bottom line is we wanted to come out and put a lot of full-court pressure on them."

The Wildcats had five turnovers in the first five minutes of the game and finished with 26 team turnovers.

"Marnie basically wanted us to put a lot of pressure on the ball," Hill said of how Dacko prepared the Minutewomen for this game. "She didn't want any guard or anyone [else] to get by us really easy or see the court really easily. If that means giving them pressure full-court then we have to stop them."

Hill's defensive assignment was junior guard Amy Simpson, last season's leading scorer for the Wildcats. Simpson was second on the team in points, with 14, but Hill bothered her enough that she shot below 50 percent in the game.

Although the Minutewomen got one block in the game - by guard Sakera Young, who had two steals in the game - they had the defensive edge in other ways. UMass had 13 steals to the six by New Hampshire.

The Wildcat starters went a combined 17-for-43 from the field - 43 percent.

"In the second half, we kind of let them in," Dacko said of UMass' lesser defensive pressure when they had a large lead - the Minutewomen led by as many as 19 points. "We were able to refocus on defense and get back into the game to take the lead."

With just over 13 minutes left in the game, UMass let its lead slip to three points, letting the Wildcats chip away at an 11-point deficit to get them back within one possession.

At that point, Dacko substituted Young in for Benton, which proved to be a key move in closing out the game. At 12:30, Young made the only Minutewoman block of the game, which swung the momentum in favor of UMass. After this, UNH made two consecutive turnovers, followed by two consecutive fouls and the Minutewoman defense stifled New Hampshire for the final time. The Wildcats missed key free-throws toward the end of the game, but it was already out of reach.

By the end of the game, the Minutewoman defense scored 27 points off of Wildcat turnovers.

Mike Gillmeister can be reached at mgillmei@student.umass.edu.



Source: dailycollegian.com