UMass Minutewomen (10-3) defeated the Dartmouth Big Green (2-12) 77-58. UMass extends their win streak to two games, and also tying the all time series against Dartmouth 10-10. The win against Dartmouth closes out the nonconference portion of the season. The Minutewomen’s 19 point win against Dartmouth also came on UMass head coach, Tory Verdi’s 50th birthday.
For the second game in a row, UMass came off on yet another slow start. Scoring was back and forth in the first quarter and by the end of the quarter Dartmouth had a one point lead, 17-16. That lead was the last time that Dartmouth had a lead at any point at a media timeout or a timeout called by the coach. The Minutewomen did there job holding the Big Green to only 8 points in the second quarter and 10 points in the 3rd quarter, and UMass led at the end of the third quarter by 19 points, with the score being 54-35 UMass leads. After the performances that the Minutewomen pulled off in the last three quarters after the slow start it stunned the Big Green and kept them from trying to retake the lead.
Sam Breen lead the Minutewomen in a scoring and rebounding adding another double double to her double doubles in her career with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Breen also had a career high in steals with 5. Ber’Nyah Mayo also scored 17 points and had 7 assists. Makennah White also scored 15 points and 5 rebounds, scoring in double digits for only being her second game back. Sydney Taylor also scored 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Next up the Minutewomen start up Atlantic 10 play against the Saint Bonaventure Bonnies (2-12) on New Years Eve at 2pm in the Mullins Center. The Bonnies played against Buffalo on Thursday afternoon and lost 58-49. UMass is looking to extend their win streak to three while Saint Bonaventure looks to break a four game losing streak. UMass leads the all-time series against Saint Bonaventure 35-31, UMass currently has three game win streak against the Bonnies and look to extend it to four. The Bonnies average around 52.8 points per game and allow on average 65.1 points to be scored by their opponent. The Bonnies player to watch is I’yanna Lops who leads the team in both rebounding and scoring 11.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game.
