Minutewomen Host St. Bonaventure In Home Finale On Wednesday At 7 PM
UMass continues its playoff push by hosting the Bonnies, who the Minutewomen split two games with last season.
Feb. 26, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. -
UMass women's basketball (12-15, 4-8 A-10) closes the home portion of its 2007-08 schedule on Wednesday by hosting St. Bonaventure (18-9, 6-6 A-10) in a 7 p.m. tip-off at the Mullins Center. The Minutewomen are currently in a three-way tie for 11th-place in the standings with Duquesne and La Salle with two games remaining. UMass will travel to Temple on Saturday for its final regular season game. Duquesne plays at Rhode Island today and La Salle hosts Saint Joseph's. The Dukes and Explorers close the season by playing each other on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
With a convincing, 56-46, victory at home over Dayton (21-7, 7-4 A-10) on Saturday, the Minutewomen ended a four-game losing skid that occurred in a tough stretch in the schedule that saw them play four of five games on the road.
The Bonnies are coming off a 64-63 victory vs. Saint Louis on Sunday, giving them three-straight wins. St. Bonaventure trailed in the closing seconds, but a Erica Schiefen layup with six seconds left gave the Bonnies the one-point win.
The Minutewomen and Bonnies share 10 common opponents this season, all coming in A-10 play. UMass has posted a 4-7 record against those opponents (two games vs. URI), while Dayton has gone 6-5 against them (two games vs. Duquesne).
UMass is 10-3 at home this season, while St. Bonaventure is 10-7 away from its home court.
The game will be carried on WMUA 91.1 FM and on UMassAthletics.com with Chris Marovelli and Mike Walsh calling the action. Live stats will be available via Gametracker at UMassAthletics.com, while streaming video will be on UMass All-Access.
After Wednesday's game, UMass will travel to Philadelphia to close the regular season at Temple on Saturday at 2 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 47th time the two teams have met in a series that dates back to 1987, with UMass holding a 29-17 advantage. The teams split their two meetings last season, with UMass winning at St. Bonaventure in the regular season, and the Bonnies winning in the opening round of the A-10 Tournament in Cincinnati.
On Feb. 4, 2007, UMass used a 17-4 run over the middle portion of the game to take control and eventually win, 53-49, in Olean, N.Y. Kate Mills scored a game-high 18 points and had seven rebounds, while Tamara Tatham added 12 points and seven boards. Stefanie Gerardot chipped in with nine points, shooting 3-for-4 from behind the arc. Priscilla Edwards had 13 points for St. Bonaventure, while Ashley Edwards grabbed 13 rebounds.
On March 2, 2006, The Minutewomen couldn't hang on to a 16-point second half lead, and fell, 63-60, to the Bonnies at the Cintas Center. Tamara Tatham led UMass with 16 points and eight rebounds. Mills registered a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Pam Rosanio added nine points. St. Bonaventure's Audrey Latendresse led all scorers with 19 points.
Marnie Dacko is 6-6 in her career vs. St. Bonaventure, 4-6 while coaching at UMass. This year's senior class has posted a 3-3 record vs. the Bonnies.
The Minutewomen are 17-5 at home vs. St. Bonaventure.
SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE
St. Bonaventure is 18-9 overall this season and enters Wednesday's game 6-6 in A-10 play. The Bonnies come into the game on the heels of a 64-63 victory vs. Saint Louis on Sunday. That win made it three-straight victories, with wins over Duquesne (69-66) and, in what was the upset of the season in the A-10, # 14 George Washington (63-60). After starting the season by going 12-3 in non-conference play, it has been a series of three-game streaks in A-10 play for the Bonnies. They opened the A-10 schedule by losing three, then won three, before losing three, followed by the most recent three-game winning streak.
The Bonnies' offense features the A-10's leading scorer in 6-1 sophomore forward Dana Mitchell. She scores 18.7 points per game and also leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game and a .491 field goal percentage. 5-8 junior Katelyn Murray scores 10.5 ppg and is the Bonnies' top outside-shooting threat, making 38.9% (49-126) of her 3-point attempts. 6-0 junior forward Erica Shiefen contributes 7.3 ppg and is an outside threat as well, shooting 35.6% (36-101) from beyond the arc. 5-11 sophomore guard Andrea Doneth is St. Bona's top playmaker, leading the club with 93 assists, while scoring 6.7 ppg.
The Bonnies are the best 3-point shooting team in the A-10, making 36.2% of their attempts.
Jim Crowley is in his eighth season as head coach of the Bonnies, posting a 75-135 record. He served as an assistant for four years at the Olean school before taking over as head coach in 2000, with the Bonnies going 126-176 over the course of his 12 season at the school. Crowley led the Bonnies to a 16-15 record, with a 5-9 mark in the A-10, good for 10th. The Keuka College '93 grad was head coach at his alma mater for three seasons before going to St. Bonaventure.
LAST TIME OUT
On the day UMass honored its seniors, Kate Mills recorded the 15th double-double of her illustrious career with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks, to lead UMass to a 56-46 victory over Dayton (21-7, 7-4 A-10) in Saturday afternoon's Atlantic 10 game at the Mullins Center. Fellow seniors Pam Rosanio and Alisha Tatham added 11 and seven points, respectively. Tatham also grabbed nine rebounds as the Minutewomen kept their playoff hopes alive with the victory combined with a La Salle loss. Karah Cloxton led Dayton with 10 points, all in the first half.
Mills, Rosanio, Tatham, and Whitney McDonald, UMass' seniors that were honored in a ceremony following game, combined to score 45 of the Minutewomen's 56 points.
ROSANIO REACHES MILESTONES
With three assists on Saturday, senior Pam Rosanio joined UMass all-time leading scorer Sue Peters (`80) as the only players in school history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 300 assists in a career.
With her 29th minute played on Feb. 20 at Duquesne, Rosanio passed Melissa Gurile's mark of 3,737 to become the all-time UMass leader in minutes played in a career. The four-year starter played all 40 minutes and has now logged 3,788 minutes in a UMass uniform.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Mullins Center has been extra good to the Minutewomen this season. They are 10-3 on Jack Leaman Court this season.
UMass started out a perfect 7-0 at home this season. It was their best start at home since the 1995-96 season, when UMass ran the table at home, going 12-0. They finished 20-10 that season, culminating in the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance.
UMass averages almost 10 points per game more at home (68.7 to 59.0) while allowing almost five fewer (62.2 to 67.0). The Minutewomen also shoot much better in the familiar surroundings, 47.5% to 40.6%. The biggest difference has been behind the 3-point arc, where they shoot 35.6% at home as opposed to 23.9% on the road.
UMass' Dec. 22 victory over Buffalo was No. 100 for the Minutewomen at the Mullins Center. They currently have a record of 105-61 (.633) on their home court since their first game there on Jan. 2, 1994 vs. Vanderbilt.
MILLS CONTINUES TO CLIMB CAREER CHARTS
Kate Mills has moved into sixth-place on the UMass all-time scoring list with 1,485 points. Mills moved past Crystal Carroll (1,405) and Julie Ready (1,406) after scoring 24 points against Rhode Island (2/9). Next up for Mills is Jennifer Butler, who is five points ahead with 1,490 in a career that spanned 1999 to 2003.
With six rebounds on Dec. 4 at St. John's, Kate Mills surpassed the 500-rebound mark for her career. She becomes the 13th player in UMass history to amass 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career.
With four blocks on Dec. 15 at Wagner, Mills became just the second player in UMass history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 150 blocks in a career. Melissa Gurile had 1,679 points, 830 rebounds, and 182 blocks in a career that spanned 1992 to 1996.
PLAYING TEAM BASKETBALL
A good sign of team basketball is high assist numbers and UMass has certainly achieved that this year. The Minutewomen are in first place in the Atlantic 10 in assists with 16.8 per game.
The assists have been coming from a variety of sources. In 27 games this season, junior point guard Sakera Young leads the team with 101. Senior Pam Rosanio is second with 91, while forward Kate Mills has 79. Sophomore point guard Kim Benton has 61 and junior guard Stefanie Gerardot and Alisha Tatham each have 37.
UMass had a season-high 24 assists on Dec. 8 vs. Maine with 24. They recorded an assist on 89% of their field goals that day (24-27).
The Minutewomen challenged that season-high on Feb. 7 at La Salle, Jan. 12 vs. Rhode Island and Jan. 3 vs. Longwood when they tallied 22 assists in each game.
The Minutewomen recorded an assist on 69 percent of their baskets last year.
This season, they are on an even better pace with 454 assists on 645 field goals (70%).
SHARP SHOOTERS
The Minutewomen boast the top field goal percentage in the Atlantic 10 thus far in 2007-08 with a .439 (645-1470) mark.
Two of the top-10 field goal percentages in the A-10 are owned by Minutewomen. Kate Mills is fourth in the conference at .528 (205-388) and Pam Rosanio is eighth at .497 (154-310). Only one other team has two players in the top-10 (Dayton).
UMass shooters also have put up the conference's top-five shooting performances of the season thus far. Kate Mills' 9-for-11 shooting display in her 22-point game versus Jacksonville on Nov. 23 was the best percentage in a game this season (.818). Mills and Rosanio both tied that performance on Jan. 3 vs. Longwood with 9-for-11 shooting nights. Stefanie Gerardot shot 8-of-10 in UMass' home victory over Boston College on Nov. 14 on the way to her career-high 20 points. On Dec. 11, Mills' 8-for-10 performance on the way to 18 points tied Gerardot's mark for fourth.
Pam Rosanio is tied with several players for the best performance from the free throw line in a game this season. She was a perfect 8-of-8 versus Jacksonville on Nov. 23 when she finished with 20 points.
UMass was one of the top shooting teams in the league last season. The Minutewomen finished second in the A-10 shooting 44 percent from the field and were just .005 points behind first-place Temple.
Kate Mills led the league in 2006-07, shooting .538 from the floor (193-of-359).
NEXT GAME: AT TEMPLE
The Minutewomen close the regular season by traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls on Saturday at 2 p.m.
WMUA 91.1 FM and UMassAthletics.com will carry the game with Zach Claudio and Chris Marovelli covering the action. Gametracker and streaming video will also be available at UMassAthletics.com.
