The UMass women’s basketball team never went away against No. 5 Tennessee, but a dominant second half from the Lady Vols was too much for the Minutewomen to match in a 74-65 loss at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday night.
Though UMass out-rebounded Tennessee 49-45, free throws made a difference in the nine-point loss. The Lady Vols were 17-for-23 at the charity stripe, while UMass was 9-of-14.
“For us to out-rebound a team that is second in the country in rebounding is pretty significant,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said. “Rebounding is effort. Rebounding’s a want to, it’s a mindset. For what our players just did, I’m extremely proud of them.”
Tennessee also had a much better field goal percentage, converting 41.9 percent of its shots while UMass made 30.8 of its attempts.
Sam Breen led the Minutewomen with a double-double, sinking 18 points and grabbing 12 boards. Ber’Nyah Mayo had 15 points and seven rebounds and Sydney Taylor finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, all of them defensive boards.
“A lot of times reporters and people ask about UMass basketball. What is UMass basketball? And I told them if I could just take what we just did tonight and put it in a picture and give it to them, that is who we are,” Verdi said. “We’re a team that comes in and know we’re going to work extremely hard for 40 minutes. I’m extremely proud of our effort tonight.”
UMass (1-1) went into halftime down just five points after two hard-fought quarters. The difference for the Vols came in the second half, particularly in the third frame. UMass made just five of its 23 shot attempts in the third quarter, a 21.7 percent success rate. Tennessee made 41.6 of its field goal attempts, but the hosts’ biggest success in the third frame was, again, at the free throw line, where they made seven from the stripe to pad a 54-44 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Tennessee (1-1) looked ready to run away with the game in the final period, going on an 11-2 run to open the quarter and build a 65-46 lead.
UMass put up a valiant fight, scoring 12 unanswered points to make it a seven-point game with 3:59 left.
That was too close for comfort for Tennessee, which locked it down in the final minutes and staved off the comeback effort. Missed opportunities and shots that just wouldn’t fall were the downfall of UMass at the end of the game.
Despite the loss, Verdi was grateful for the opportunity to play against one of the top teams in the country.
“There’s a reason why I scheduled this game. We talk about if we want to be the best, you have to go play the best,” Verdi said. “I felt that coming down here into this environment and playing against a team with all these All-Americans will play dividends down the road.”
The first half was the kind of game UMass wanted to play. The Minutewomen matched the Vols stride-for-stride early in the first quarter, opening the game with a Mayo jumper and building up a 9-5 lead at one point. The Vols went on an 8-0 run to regain a 13-10 lead, one they never relinquished.
Leading 17-15 after the first, the Vols sunk a trio of triples in the second quarter and managed to out-rebound UMass 12-10 to build its lead. Shooting woes continued to plague UMass, which went 2-9 behind the three-point line in the second quarter and struggled to hit layups at key points of the game.
“You’ve got to give Tennessee credit, their length bothered us, we missed a lot of layups because of their length. But that’s who they are,” Verdi said.
UMass will return home to face Maine on Monday, with tip-off at 7 p.m.