Minutewomen To Meet Dayton In A-10 Tournament First Round, Friday At 2 PM12th-seeded UMass will meet fifth-seeded Dayton with the winner to meet fourth-seeded Charlotte in the quarterfinals.
Kate Mills averages 12.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in four career A-10 Tournament games.
UMass women's basketball (13-16, 5-9 A-10), after closing the season by winning two out of three games, heads to Philadelphia and Saint Joseph's Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse for the 2008 Atlantic 10 Championship to be played March 7-10. The Minutewomen earned the #12 seed and will face #5 seed Dayton in (23-7, 9-5 A-10) the first round on Friday at 2 p.m. The winner will face #4 Charlotte, who received a first round bye, in the second round on Saturday at 2 p.m.
The Minutewomen and Flyers met less then two weeks ago, on Saturday, Feb. 23 in Amherst. UMass came away with a 56-46 victory.
The Flyers last loss was that Feb. 23 loss at UMass, since then they have defeated Xavier on the road and Saint Louis at home, both 10-point victories.
This year's group of seniors for UMass are 1-3 in A-10 Tournament games in their careers, with the lone win coming on March 4, 2005 vs. Duquesne in their freshmen season.
Marnie Dacko has led UMass to the A-10 Tournament in all six of her seasons as head coach. She is 1-5 in A-10 Tournament games in the previous five seasons.
All of UMass' games will be carried on WMUA 91.1 FM and on UMassAthletics.com with Zach Claudio and Chris Marovelli calling the action. Live stats will be available via Gametracker at UMassAthletics.com, while streaming video will be on UMass All-Access. The semifinals on Sundaywill be televised on CSTV, while Monday's championship game will air on ESPN2 at 5 p.m.
The winner of the Atlantic 10 Championship will as always win an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. UMass' last NCAA appearance was in 1997-98, when it went 19-11. The MInutewomen's only other tournament appearance was two seasons earlier, in 1995-96, when they posted a 20-10 record.
UMASS IN THE A-10 CHAMPIONSHIP
This is UMass' 26th-straight appearance in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, dating back to the 1982-83 season. The Minutewomen have a 13-25 record overall.
In UMass' last A-10 Tournament game, on March 2, 2007, the Minutewomen fell to St. Bonaventure, 63-60, at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati. UMass used a 15-0 second half run to take a 16-point lead, 45-29, with 15:24 left, but the Bonnies mounted a furious comeback to pull off the victory. Kate Mills had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Tamara Tatham led the club with 16 points.
UMass' last A-10 Tournament win came on March 4, 2005, a 67-52 win over Duquesne at the Smith Center in Washington, DC. All five Minutewomen starters finished in double-figures, with Katie Nelson leading the way with 17 points. Then-freshmen, Kate Mills and Pam Rosanio added 14 and 12 points, respectively.
This will be the first time UMass and Dayton have met in the A-10 Tournament.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 15th time the two teams have met in a series that dates back to 1996, with UMass holding a 10-4 advantage. The Minutewomen have won three of the last five.
On Saturday, Feb. 23 of this year, on Senior Day in Amherst, 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. 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.
Marnie Dacko is 4-2 in her career vs. Dayton, all coming while coaching at UMass, while this year's senior class has posted a 3-1 record vs. the Flyers with two wins at Dayton and this season's win at home.
SCOUTING DAYTON
Dayton comes into the tournament with a 23-7 overall record and a 9-5 mark in conference play. The Flyers have won two-straight, a 68-58 win at Xavier on Feb. 27 and a 85-75 victory over Saint Louis on Saturday. Their last loss was to the Minutewomen on Feb. 23, which followed a 68-66 loss to Richmond on Feb. 20. Prior to that, Dayton had won four-straight games, over St. Bonaventure, Fordham, Xavier, and Rhode Island. Dayton opened the season with two losses, then went on a 16-game winning streak that took it into conference play. The Flyers finished with an impressive 14-2 non-conference mark.
The Flyers are led by 6-2 senior forward Nikki Oakland at 13.9 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 51.7% from the field. 6-0 senior guard Brittany Holterman is second on the team at 11.0 ppg and averages 4.8 rpg. She has the third-best field goal percentage in the A-10 at .541. 6-0 freshman forward Kristen Daugherty is the third on the team in scoring with 9.7 ppg and has made 24 3-pointers. 5-8 senior point guard Karah Cloxton scores 6.7 ppg and is the team's top playmaker with 134 assists. 6-0 senior guard Kiki Lund scores 8.2 ppg off the bench and is the #2 3-point threat in the A-10, shooting 42.5% (62-146) from behind the arc.
Dayton holds its opponents to the second lowest field goal percentage in the A-10 at .358, while having the number one 3-point field goal percentage defense in the conference at .285.
Jim Jabir is in his fifth season coaching the Flyers and has a 68-79 (.463) record. The 1984 Nazareth College graduate has a career record of 287-302 (.487) and led Dayton to a 12-19 finish in 2006-07 with a 6-8 mark in A-10 play, good for ninth. He came to Dayton after serving as an assistant at Colorado for two seasons. Prior to coaching the Buffaloes, Jabir had head coaching stints at Nazareth, Buffalo State, Siena, Marquette, and Providence.
THE WINNER GETS CHARLOTTE
Charlotte is 18-12 overall and its 9-5 conference record is the same as Dayton's but it gets the #4 seed by virtue of the 49ers' 64-51 win over the Flyers on Jan. 22. Charlotte enters the tournament on a two-game winning streak, with wins over Fordham and Richmond to close the regular season. Those wins followed back-to-back losses at Xavier and vs. Rhode Island. Prior to that, the 49ers won two vs. St. Bonaventure and Saint Joe's.
On Jan. 15, Stefanie Gerardot netted a team-high 14 points, including the UMass' final eight points, but it wasn't enough as the Minutewomen fell to Charlotte, 53-44, in a back and forth affair at Halton Arena. Pam Rosanio added 13 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Kate Mills recorded a near-double-double for UMass with 10 points and nine rebounds. Charlotte was led by Traci Ray's 11 points. The team's combined for 53 turnovers in a game that saw both offenses struggle.
LAST TIME OUT
Pam Rosanio scored 15 points and Kate Mills added 13, but it wasn't enough, as UMass lost to Temple, 64-46, in Saturday afternoon's A-10 regular season finale at the Liacouras Center. Mills led the Minutewomen with seven rebounds and four assists, while Sakera Young added seven points and five boards. The Owls were led by LaKeisha Eaddy's 16 points.
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. An Ashley Morris layup as the buzzer sounded gave the Owls a 31-26 halftime lead. 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.
ROSANIO REACHES MILESTONES
With three assists against Dayton (2/23), 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 3,864 minutes in a UMass uniform.
MILLS CONTINUES TO CLIMB CAREER CHARTS
With her eight blocks on Wednesday vs. St. Bonaventure, Mills finished the game with 189 for her career, passing Melissa Gurile's mark of 182 for first on UMass' all-time list. After the game at Temple (3/1), Mills now has 191 career blocks.
Kate Mills has moved into fourth-place on the UMass all-time scoring list with 1508 points. After scoring 13 points against Temple (3/1), Mills passed Barbara Hebel's 1,498 points. Mills moved passed Jennifer Butler's 1,490 points after scoring 10 points against St. Bonaventure (2/27). Mills moved past Crystal Carroll (1,405) and Julie Ready (1,406) after scoring 24 points against Rhode Island (2/9).
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 16.69 per game.
The assists have been coming from a variety of sources. In 29 games this season, junior point guard Sakera Young leads the team with 104. Senior Pam Rosanio is second with 95, while forward Kate Mills has 90. Sophomore point guard Kim Benton has 65 and Alisha Tatham has 42.
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 484 assists on 687 field goals (70%).
SHARP SHOOTERS
The Minutewomen boast the top field goal percentage in the Atlantic 10 thus far in 2007-08 with a .440 (687-1563) mark.
Two of the top-10 field goal percentages in the A-10 are owned by Minutewomen. Kate Mills is fifth in the conference at .523 (214-409) and Pam Rosanio is eighth at .496 (166-335). 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).
HOME SWEET HOME
The Mullins Center was extra good to the Minutewomen this season. They were 11-3 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 (68.8 to 58.1) while allowing almost five fewer (61.4 to 66.8). The Minutewomen also shoot much better in the familiar surroundings, 48.2% to 40.1%. The biggest difference has been behind the 3-point arc, where they shoot 37.0% at home as opposed to 23.3% 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.
