Rather than simply defending its Atlantic 10 tournament championship, the UMass women’s basketball team will attack the conference in pursuit of its first regular season title.
The Minutewomen finished third in last year’s standings but stormed through the conference tournament to claim their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1998.
That placed the target squarely on UMass’ back, especially after returning the entire team and adding impact transfers.
“You could say everyone’s coming after you, you’ve got a bull’s-eye on your back. You’re the hunted,” UMass coach Tory Verdi said. “I’m like no, we’re the hunter. We’ve got to go out there and be aggressive. We’ve got to hunt for wins. We’re not gonna take everyone’s best shot, we’re gonna give everyone our best shot.”
Saint Bonaventure is up first at 2 p.m. Saturday (NESN-Plus/ESPN-Plus) in the Mullins Center.
The Bonnies (3-12) have lost their last four games. They rank last in the league scoring 52.8 points per game and are last in scoring margin, allowing 12.3 more points per game than their opponents.
St. Bonaventure is also last in the league in shooting percentage (34.8) and rebounding margin (minus-5.9).
“They’ll shoot a whole lot of 3s. Now they’re not making a whole lot, so we’ve got to do a great job of boxing out and rebounding,” Verdi said.
UMass (10-3), conversely, leads the A-10 in scoring (77.3 points per game), field goal percentage (44.5), turnover margin (plus-4.92) and assists (18 per game). Five Minutewomen average in double figure points per game, led by reigning A-10 Player of the Year Sam Breen at 18.3, second in the conference. Sydney Taylor is also in the league’s top 10 scorers averaging 16.8 per contest, while Destiney Philoxy (12.5), Makennah White (12.3) and Ber’Nyah Mayo (12.1) each put up a dozen.
“We have a lot of scorers on the floor. On any given night it can be anybody’s day,” Verdi said. “I know we can score the basketball. Now we have to value the ball a little bit. I think that at times we get really nonchalant with it and careless with it.”
UMass hasn’t lost an A-10 game since Feb. 20 at Davidson and ended last year with 11 wins in their last 12 league games. Verdi went over recent conference standings and showed his team how many wins it has taken of late to claim the regular season conference championship.
“That’s been a goal of ours this year. It’s been mentioned,” Verdi said. “We’re gonna take one game at a time, and if it happens, it happens. Don’t get me wrong, that’s our goal now, but it’s one game at a time. Saint Bonaventure is the game, and that’s what we’re focused on.”