Feb. 10, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass women’s basketball team will have a special 11:45 a.m. tip time on Feb. 11 as the Minutewomen play host to Temple on its annual Field Trip Day this Wednesday in the Mullins Center. An audio broadcast of the game will be carried on WMUA 91.1 FM, while a video webcast and live stats will be available via UMass All-Access at UMassAthletics.com. The contest will mark the 48th all-time meeting between the schools. Temple leads the series, 29-18, and has won the past eight straight games versus the Mintuewomen. The last UMass victory against the Owls came on Jan. 16, 2003, at home in Amherst, a 89-80 overtime thriller. Marnie Dacko is 1-8 in her career against Temple. All meetings have come during her time at UMass.

Minutewomen Tidbits
• The 2008-09 Minutewomen are a young group with only two seniors and one junior on the 13-player roster.
• UMass returns eight letterwinners, losing five. Senior Stefanie Gerardot and junior Kim Benton are the lone returning starters from the 2007-08 squad.
• Among the squad’s losses from 2007-08 are two 1,000-point scorers, All-Atlantic 10 performers Kate Mills and Pam Rosanio. Mills finished her career fourth all-time in scoring with 1,525 points, while Rosanio ranks seventh with 1,466.
• The Minutewomen were selected 12th in Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll.

About The Temple Owls
• Temple tied for the Atlantic 10 regular season title last year last season with a conference record of 12-2 and went 21-13 overall, earning an NCAA Tournament berth. The Owls were picked fourth in this year’s A-10 Preseason Poll.
• Entering Wednesday’s matchup, Temple is currently 15-7 on the season and 6-2 in A-10 games. The Owls have won four straight and have not lost consecutive games all season. Their two conference losses have come at the hands of Duquesne (68-57) and St. Bonaventure (55-52), both on the road. Most recently on Feb. 8, Temple defeated Saint Louis, 76-56.
• Four players are averaging in double figures for the Owls, led by Shenita Landry’s 12.1 points per-game. Shaqwedi Wallace follows with 11.8 ppg, while LaKeisha Eaddy and Shanea Cotton contribute 11.3 and 11.0 ppg, respectively. Landry is the squad’s leading rebounder with an average of 9.6 per-game.

The Last Meeting: UMass at Temple (3/1/08)
• PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Pam Rosanio scored 15 points and Kate Mills added 13, but it wasn’t enough, as UMass lost to Temple, in the teams’ A-10 regular season finale at the Liacouras Center on Mar. 1, 2008. Mills led the Minutewomen with seven rebounds and four assists, while Sakera Young (Glassboro, N.J.) added seven points and five boards. The Owls were led by LaKeisha Eaddy’s 16 points. The Minutewomen will be the #12 seed at the A-10 Tournament and play #5-seeded Dayton in the first round on Friday at 2 p.m.
• For the game UMass shot 32.0% (16-50) from the floor, while Temple shot 42.6% (23-54). The Owls held a 42-29 advantage on the boards.
• The offenses started slowly, with UMass taking an early 4-2 lead and not allowing Temple’s first field goal until the 14:06 mark. The Owls went on a 10-2 run that gave them the lead, 14-8, with 9:30 left in the half. UMass outscored Temple, 12-7, with five different players scoring over a five minute span to pull within one, 21-20, with 4:14 left. An Ashley Morris layup as the buzzer sounded gave the Owls a 31-26 halftime lead.
• Young led the Minutewomen with seven first half points, while Wallace had nine for the Owls. UMass shot 35.7% (10-28) in the first half, while Temple shot 41.9% (13-31). The Owls had the advantage on the glass as well, 22-15.
• A 6-0 UMass spurt early in the second half pulled the Minutewomen within two, 36-34, with 17:32 left. The Owls slowly increased their lead, with an Eaddy jumper giving them a 10-point lead, 50-40, with 7:26 to go. Temple was able to go 6-for-6 at the free throw stripe between the 2:32 and 1:59 marks, and then scored the final six points of the game to seal the 64-46 victory.

Young Climbing Career Charts For Assists, Steals
• With 79 assists on the year, senior Sakera Young has 276 career assists to her credit. She is now ninth all-time after passing Barbara Hebel’s total at Dayton on Feb. 7.
• Young’s single game total of 11 against Brown on Dec. 7 was not only her career high, but was the most by a Minutewomen since Katie Nelson ’06 had 10 against Saint Joseph’s on Feb. 5, 2006.
• She recently entered the top-20 all-time in steals and currently is 15th in program history with 115 and is two shy of overtaking Alison MacFarland for 14th.
• Young is ranked seventh in the A-10 in assists per-game (3.43) and ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio (0.99).
• From Jan. 24 to Feb. 3, Young scored in double figures in three straight games for the first time in her career, netting a team-best 16 points at Richmond and pouring in 11 against Saint Louis before leading the team with a career-high 22 points at Rhode Island. She has scored in double figures seven times in her career, all have come this season.
• Against the Billikens on Jan. 31, Young played in her 100th career game.

Danella Picks Up Another Atlantic 10 Honor
• After averaging 14.5 points per-game and 6.5 rebounds per-game in a 1-1 week for the Minutewomen, Freshman Kristina Danella picked up her third A-10 honor of season as she was recognized as Atlantic 10 Co-Rookie of the Week on Feb. 9.
• Danella is just the third Minutewoman in program history to garner three or more A-10 Rookie of the Week Awards. Pam Rosanio, a rookie in 2004-05, earned the award three times and Octavia Thomas collected the honor four times during the 1992-93 season.
• Her performances vs. NJIT (16 points, seven rebounds) and Fordham (24 points) earned her Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Rookie of the Week for the second time this season back on Jan. 11.
• Danella was first selected as the Rookie of the Week on Dec. 22. This marked the first A-10 weekly award for a member of the Minutewomen this season, while Danella was the first rookie from UMass to be recognized since current junior Kim Benton was honored on Dec. 18, 2006 and was also named the UMass/Dinn Bros. Athlete of the Week, as well.
• Danella helped the Minutewomen to a 80-51 victory over Northeastern on Dec. 20 in the squad’s only game of that week, leading all scorers with 25 points for a career high. She shot 7-for-11 (63.6%) from beyond the arc, contributed seven rebounds and one block in the win.
• Her seven treys matched a program single game record originally set by Beth Kuzmeski against Dartmouth on Jan. 25, 1995 and accounted for half of the team’s total as the Minutewomen also broke a school record for three-pointers in a game with 14.

Danella Making Herself Known In The A-10
• Through eight A-10 games, freshman Kristina Danella is tie for ninth in the conference in scoring (13.5 ppg) and ranks first in three-point field goals per game (2.75), third in three-point field goal percentage (44.9%) and is eighth in blocks per-game (1.12). She is the top scoring A-10 freshman in conference play.
• In the overall statistics, she is in the top-10 in the league in three-point field goal percentage (3rd, 43.0%) as she has made 37-of-86 on the year.
• Danella had a breakout month of December, averaging 7.2 points per-game and 5.2 rebounds per-game over UMass’ six contests that month as she posted season best performances in points (25) and rebounds (11), averaging 18.2 minutes played per-game. Over the month of November (six games), Danella had averaged just 2.8 points and 3.2 rebounds in 14.5 minutes played per-game.
• Since then, Danella entered the starting lineup on Dec. 29 vs. Seton Hall and has started the past 12 games, playing a career-high 39 minutes at Fordham on Jan. 10.
• She averaged 11.8 points per-game and 4.7 rebounds per-game in the month of January and has led the team in scoring in the five of the past nine contests with 16 points against NJIT, 24 vs. Fordham, 18 vs. Charlotte, 11 vs. Xavier and 20 at Dayton. She has reached double figures in scoring in six of the past nine games.
• Danella is the team’s leading free throw shooter, having made 42-of-54, (77.8%).

Cerie...For Three!
• Sophomore Cerie Mosgrove is fourth in the Atlantic-10 in three-point field goals made (45) with an average of 1.96 per-game.
• Mosgrove surpassed the team lead from the 2007-08 season just nine games into this year’s campaign on Dec. 7 at Brown. Current senior Stefanie Gerardot had a team-high 26 made three-pointers last year.
• Mosgrove has 58 career three-pointers, which ranks 14th all-time as she passed Paige Harris’ career total (53) during UMass’ game vs. Xavier on Jan. 21. She is four away from passing Ebony Pegues and Judit Zsedenyi for 13th.
• On Jan. 24 at Richmond, Mosgrove broke into the program’s single season list with her 43rd trey of the year. Her current total ranks eighth after passing Paige Harris’ 2000-01 total (44) on Feb. 7 at Dayton. Mosgrove is now two away from moving into seventh all-time and three away from sixth. Katie Nelson ’06 holds the record with 58 three-pointers in a season (2004-05). Nelson averaged 2.0 made threes per-game that year.

Record Breaking Year Beyond The Arc
• Kristina Danella’s three pointer vs. St. Bonaventure on Jan. 17 was the team’s 118th of the season, shattering the school record for treys 18 games into the 2008-09 campaign.
• The previous team record for a season was 117, set during the 2002-03 campaign (28 games), an average of 4.18 per-game. The Minutewomen entered the week 43rd nationally and are currently second in the Atlantic 10 with an average of 6.48 three-pointers per-game.
• Senior Stefanie Gerardot is now fifth all time in career three-pointers (95) and needs just three more to pass Sue Serafini for fourth all-time. Junior Kim Benton follows just behind Gerardot in fifth with 94 career treys. Gerardot has a career-best 40 threes thus far this season.
• The program single game record for three-point field goals made was nine entering 2008-09, set back on Jan. 18, 2003 vs. St. Bonaventure. The Minutewomen broke that record with 10 against New Hampshire on Nov. 19, before surpassing the mark with 11 at Colorado on Nov. 28. UMass equaled the record of 11 at Brown on Dec. 7 and also had 10 against Minnesota on Nov. 29.
• On Dec. 20 against Northeastern, the Minutewomen broke the single game three-point record once again with 14 against the Huskies, marking the fifth time this season the squad has put up 10 or more threes in a game. It also equaled the second-highest single game total by a squad in Atlantic 10 history.

“The Show” Leads The Offense
• Through 23 games, senior Stefanie Gerardot leads the team and is fifth in the A-10 scoring with 15.4 points per-game. She is also 10th in the Atlantic 10 in free throw percentage (71.4%) and eighth in three-point field goals per-game (1.74).
• Gerardot has reached double figures in scoring in 20 out of 23 games this season, surpassing the 20-point mark five times. Her 20 games in double figures this year is more than the career total she held entering 2008-09 (14), while she had only scored 20 once prior to her senior campaign. Gerardot netted a game-best 24 vs. Saint Louis on Jan. 31 for her fifth 20-point game of the season.
• Prior to the team’s Jan. 24 contest at Richmond, Gerardot had scored in double figures for nine straight games, the longest streak of her career (previous high was five earlier this season).
• Her 355 points are a career best for a single season as her previous high was 205 in 30 games in 2007-08. Her 92 rebounds are a career high, as well.
• Gerardot played in her 100th career game on Jan. 10 at Fordham and scored her 700th career point against Saint Louis on Jan. 31.

Wright Way To Rebound
• Sophomore Teya Wright is the leading rebounder for the Minutewomen and is seventh in the A-10 in rebounds per-game (7.9), second in offensive rebounds per-game (3.39).
• Wright has helped make up for the loss of 2008 graduate Kate Mills who led the squad in rebounds last season with 219 in 30 games for an average of 7.3 per-game. Wright has been the squad’s leading rebounder in 14 of 23 games thus far, including a career high 16 vs. Delaware. She now has logged five or more rebounds in a game 34 times in 53 career contests.
• At Dayton on Feb. 7, Wright logged her fifth career double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds. It also marked her ninth career game with 10 or more rebounds. Eight of her 14 boards came on the offensive glass.
• Wright also ranks in the top-10 in the league in field goal percentage at .510 (80-157). She was 8-for-9 from the field at Rhode Island on Feb. 3.
• Wright surpassed her steals total from 2007-08 15 games into this season vs. NJIT. She had 27 in 30 games as a freshman and currently has a team-high 39 steals in 23 games, good for ninth in the Atlantic 10 with an average of 1.70 steals per-game.
• Wright played a career-high 35 minutes at Boston College (Jan. 4) and had a career-best three blocks at Fordham (Jan. 10).
• At Richmond on Jan. 24, Wright grabbed her 300th career rebound.

Healthy Hill Contributes For The Minutewomen
• After missing all of last season due to injury, redshirt sophomore Diatiema Hill has played in all 23 games thus far for the Minutewomen, starting 22 of them, and averages 28.7 minutes per-game, second to only senior Stefanie Gerardot’s 29.9 minutes per-game average. On Jan. 24 at Richmond, she tied her career high, playing 37 minutes versus the Spiders.
• Hill has almost tripled her freshman year total for assists (22 in 27 games) with 63 on the year.
• Hill flirted with a triple-double on Dec. 20 against Northeastern as she posted career highs in points (11) and assists (8), while matching her career best in rebounds (8).
• She then bested her career high in points against Boston University on Jan. 2 with 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting.
• Hill had a career-high five steals against NJIT, all of which came in the second half.
• She has scored six or more points in eight of the last 13 games. Her career high entering this season was five points.
• Hill tied freshman Kristina Danella for the team lead in rebounds at Richmond with six. She has been the team’s leading rebounder three times this season.

Nice To Meet You
• UMass had four new opponents on the docket for the 2008-09 non-conference schedule: Manhattan, Colorado, Long Island and NJIT. The Minutewomen went 4-0 against those teams, winning by the scores of 71-68, 70-62, 53-51 and 63-50, respectively.

Career Highs Plentiful For Returnees in 2008-09
• Seniors Stefanie Gerardot and Sakera Young and sophomore Teya Wright all had career high point totals on Nov. 14 in UMass’ season opener at Vermont.
• Gerardot’s 29 points were not only a career high for her, but marked the most points scored by a Minutewoman since March 6, 2003, when Jennifer Butler had 29 against La Salle. Gerardot also had a career-best eight rebounds. Her previous high was seven, which she had posted on two occasions, last against at La Salle on Feb. 6, 2008.
• Young equaled her career high with nine points, previously set two times, last at Duquesne on Feb. 20, 2008. The very next game, vs. Manhattan, Young surpassed that mark with 10 points, scoring in double figures for the first time and hitting the game-winning free throw with :02 seconds remaining in the contest. Young once again matched her career high with 10 against Minnesota on Nov. 29 and set a new mark with 15 vs. Seton Hall on Dec. 29. Then on Feb. 3, she had her first 20-point game of her career with 22 at Rhode Island.
• By halftime of the Vermont game, Teya Wright had already passed her career high of 11 points, which she set twice during her freshman campaign in 2007-08, at Northeastern (11/17/07) and at Providence (12/31/07). Wright totaled 12 points at the intermission and finished the night with a double-double on 15 points and 11 rebounds. At the Coors Classic, Wright set a new career high for points with 24 vs. Colorado had 13 rebounds, marking her first 20-point game of her career. Wright had a career-best 16 rebounds vs. Delaware on Dec. 10, the highest total posted by a member of the Minutewomen since Kate Mills totaled 19 against Dayton on March 7, 2008.
• Two sophomores, Cerie Mosgrove and Stephanie Lawrence, had career high point totals against New Hampshire on Nov. 19. Mosgrove drained four three-pointers, contributing to her total of 14 for the night. Lawrence matched her career best total of 10, which she had previously posted on Jan. 12, 2008, against Rhode Island. The very next game (vs. Maine on Nov. 23), Mosgrove logged a new career high again, scoring a game-best 19 points on 6-for-13 shooting from beyond the arc. On Dec. 3 against Providence, Lawrence set new career highs in points (12), minutes played (26) and matched her career best in rebounds (5).

Minutewomen Recognized For Tournament Performances
• Sophomore Cerie Mosgrove and senior Stefanie Gerardot have been honored for their success at tournaments this season as Mosgrove was named to the Coors Classic All-Tournament Team and joined Gerardot on the Brown Bear Classic All-Tournament squad.
• Both were recognized as UMass/Dinn Bros. Athletes of the Week for their performances as well. Mosgrove earned the honor on Dec. 1 after averaging 13.0 points per-game at the Coors Classic, including 17 points against Minnesota. Gerardot was honored on Monday, Dec. 8, as Co-Athlete of the Week after averaging 18.0 points per-game in a 2-1 week, including 22 points against Brown at the Brown Bear Classic.

Minutewomen Ink Pair During November Early Signing Period
• UMass head coach Marnie Dacko announced the signing of recruits Danielle Montgomery and Shakia Robinson on Nov. 24. The duo inked National Letters of Intent to play for the Minutewomen during the November early signing period.
• Montgomery is a 5-8 guard out of Bluff City, Tenn., where she has helped Tennessee High School to Three Big 9 Conference Championships in her first three seasons and has been named the Tricitiessports.com Preseason Big 9 Player of the Year this fall as a senior.
• A three-year captain, Montgomery was selected as the Northeast Tennessee Player of the Year by the Bristol Herald-Courier as a junior, while being tabbed All-Northeast Tennessee as a sophomore and as a junior by both the Bristol Herald-Courier and the Johnson City Press. As a junior, Montgomery scored her 1,000th career point and averaged 16.4 points per-game, 2.5 steals per-game and 3.6 rebounds per-game on her way to first team All-Big 9 Conference and District 1-AAA All-Tournament Team honors. Montgomery was the District-1 AAA Tournament MVP as a sophomore and earned a spot on the Region-1 AAA All-Tournament Team as a freshman.
• The daughter of Cathy and Daniel Montgomery, Danielle played AAU ball with the Nautilus Express out of Virginia, coached by former Memphis player Justin Wimmer.
• “Danielle is a left-handed floor leader with a steady handle who has explosive potential on the offensive end,” said Dacko. “She has excellent court awareness and is a good passer in transition. Danielle comes to us from Tennessee, a state that traditionally produces top-rated girls basketball players; while this is my first recruit from Tennessee, I certainly hope it is not my last.”
• Robinson is a 6-1 forward who hails from North Wales, Pa., and attends North Penn High School where she is coached by Maggie deMarteleire. As a junior, she averaged 17.2 points per game and 11.4 rebounds per game and was honored as the Suburban One League National Division MVP, was a first team all-league selection, while also being named a third team honoree by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Super “10” by The Intelligencer.
• In her freshman and sophomore campaigns at Abington Friends School, she was a two-time first team all-league selection and scored a total of 749 points over her two seasons.
• The daughter of David and Charlette Robinson, Shakia played AAU ball with the Philadelphia Belles and was coached by Kevin Lynch.
• “Shakia is strong inside with good hands and is mobile in transition,” said Dacko. “She is an aggressive rebounder with a blue collar work ethic. She has the same love of the game that current junior Kim Benton and recent graduate Pam Rosanio brought to UMass. Philadelphia is a talent rich city and we have had good fortune recruiting there.”

Minutewomen Add Zullo, Transfer From N.C. State, During Offseason
• Megan Zullo has transferred to UMass from North Carolina State to play basketball for the Minutewomen and, per NCAA rules, will be eligible to play starting in 2009-10.
• A 5-8 point guard from Greenville, N.C., Zullo started in 21 games for the Wolfpack last season, averaging 5.4 points and 2.2 assists in 22.6 minutes per game. She made 43 3-pointers and shot at a .352 clip from behind the arc.
• Zullo is the niece of former UMass player Christel Zullo, a guard who starred for the Minutewomen from 1985-1989 and scored 784 points in her career. Sadly, Christel lost her life to cancer in February 2007. Last season UMass coaches, along with alumnae, created the Christel Zullo Spirit Award to be given each year to the Minutewoman that best exemplifies the energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to the team that Christel was known for.