|
UMass Continues Challenging Slate Against Hartford
Nov. 20, 2012
The Last Meeting
December 1, 2007
Amherst, Mass. (Mullins Center)
Upcoming Promotion: Family Night
Scouting Hartford Women's Basketball The Hawks are averaging 65.8 points per contest while their defense is only allowing 54.8 per game to the combined efforts of all four opponents. Hartford also owns a noticeable advantage in field goal percentage (.452-to-.395), three-point field goal percentage (.333-to-.277) and free throw percentage (.708-to-.686). Amber Bepko's 11.5 points per game paces that squad while Elliott Dapne is the only other Hawk to average more than 10 points per contest (10.8). Bepko has connected on half of her attempts from the field, knocking down 14-of-28 while Dapne has hit 13-of-28 (46.4 FG %). Katie Roth spearheads the efforts on the boards, netting 6.3 per contest while Ruthanne Doherty follows with 5.3 on average in each game.
Last Time Against The Hawks Hartford, which received votes in the AP and coaches' polls before the contest, had won six-straight and the last three match-ups with UMass. The Hawks jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first minute and a half of the game, but the Minutewomen responded with five-straight points of their own. UMass didn't stop there, leading almost the entire half. The UMass lead extended to 28-20, with 5:41 remaining in the opening half when Rosanio scored and then stole the ball and went the length of the court for the lay-up to give the Minutewomen an eight-point lead. Hartford came back, going on a 12-4 run to end the half with the score tied, 32-32. Mills led UMass in the first half with 10 points and five rebounds while the Minutewomen shot 54.2% (13-for-24) from the field to Hartford's 36.7% (11-for-30). UMass also out-rebounded the Hawks, 20-13. Hartford's Diana Delva led all scorers in the opening 20 minutes with 11 points. UMass came out of the half hot, scoring the first six points, including four by Rosanio, to lead to a Hartford timeout at 16:56. Back-to-back three-pointers by Gerardot and Sakera Young gave the Minutewomen a 48-39 lead and capped off what was a 16-7 run over the first 6:51 of the second half. The lead would reach as much as 15 with 4:57 left in the game. The Hawks tried to mount a comeback, cutting the margin to nine with 1:32 left, but the Minutewomen were able to utilize the clock and make free throws to secure the 72-60 victory. UMass shot 50% (25-50) for the game while Hartford was 33.3% (22-66). The Minutewomen won the battle of the boards, 44-30. After committing 14 turnovers in the first half, UMass had only five in the second stanza.
Last Time Out: UMass Falls At #7/6 Notre Dame, 94-50 Watson added eight rebounds while Pierre-Louis notched three steals. Sophomore guard Emily Mital added a pair of second half three-pointers to record six points in her return after a one-game absence due to injury while tallying two assists and a pair of boards. Senior guard Dee Montgomery opened scoring for the Minutewomen on a three-pointer with 19:20 remaining in the first to give UMass a 3-2 lead; however, No. 7 Notre Dame hit 21-of-35 field goals and 9-of-10 free throws during the first half to take a 53-19 lead into the break. Rodney led UMass with six points on 3-for-4 shooting during the opening stanza, while Montgomery converted a pair of field goal attempts to tally five points. The Minutewomen shot 40.9 percent from the floor against a stout Notre Dame defense, finishing the contest strong with a 9-for-20 second half field goal output (45.0 FG %). Pierre-Louis paced UMass over the final half, recording each of her eight points during the stanza. The forward from Ottawa, Ontario, also produced four rebounds, a steal and a block during the last 20 minutes of game action. Notre Dame earned advantages in points in the paint, 50-20; off turnovers, 49-15 and second-chance points, 21-6. The Irish were led by 18 points from Kayla McBride while Skylar Diggins (15), Jewell Loyd (13) and Michaela Mabry (10) also reached double-figures in scoring.
UMass Routs Kent State, 83-53 In Season-Opener Watson, who went 8-for-11 from the floor in her 10th career 20-point game, also chipped in with eight rebounds, four blocks, four steals and three assists in 31 minutes on the floor. Sophomore Emily Mital followed with a career-best 16 points and was aided by a 4-for-6 afternoon from beyond the arc. In their debuts as Minutewomen, redshirt junior Kiara Bomben and freshman Rashida Timbilla both reached double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Timbilla also hauled in 10 boards to complete her double-double, including five on the offensive glass. Bomben snagged four steals and senior Dee Montgomery dished a career-best 11 assists, her second with 10 or more helpers. All 14 UMass players who dressed for the contest saw action with 11 draining buckets in the Minutewomen's highest scoring output since Nov. 28, 2010 at East Carolina. Redshirt sophomore Millie Niggeling paced the UMass bench with seven points, shooting a perfect 3-for-3 on the day. The Minutewomen maintained the double-digit cushion following the intermission as Kent State could draw no closer than 13 the rest of the way. UMass led by 32 with 2:05 remaining, it's largest advantage of the day.
Watson Named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Watson finished the contest against the Golden Flashes with a team-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the floor and a 5-for-8 day at the free throw line. Watson also tallied eight rebounds while adding four blocks and four steals to the winning effort.
Watson Tallies 1,000 Career Point Using her 10th collegiate game of 20 or more points, Watson became just the 18th member to the illustrious club and now stands 14 points from overtaking Beth Wilbor (1985-89) for 17th in career scoring.
Timbilla Nets Double-Double In First Collegiate Game
Bomben, Montgomery and Watson Named 2012-13 Team Captains Watson enters her senior season looking to become the 18th member of the Minutewomen's 1,000-points club, starting the year just 20 points shy of the 1,000-mark. Montgomery is also set to use her experience to guide the Minutewomen as a senior, beginning the campaign with 72 appearances and 22 starts. Bomben will be seeing her first minutes at UMass as a redshirt-junior after spending the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Mital's Emergence In her seven games as a starter, Mital has made the most of her opportunities, averaging 10.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per-game while shooting 25-for-55 (45.5 pct) from the field, including 14-for-28 (50.0 pct) from behind the arc. On three occasions, Mital has reset her single-game career-high in points scored during the span of starts. The sophomore guard produced 11 points against Rhode Island on Feb. 22, 2012 as a freshman before notching another personal best with 16 against Kent State during UMass' 2012-13 season-opener on Nov. 10. Mital followed with a 22-point outburst at Central Connecticut on Nov. 13, shooting 8-for-13 from the floor, including 6-for-10 from behind the arc, to add her first 20-point performance with the Minutewomen. Mital's six three-pointers ties the sophomore for fifth-most in a single contest in program history, only one shy of equaling the program mark of seven most recently achieved by Megan Zullo against Duquesne on Jan. 25, 2012.
Program Earns 500th Win At Siena To secure the decision, four Minutewomen earned double-figures, including 14 points each from Emilie Teuscher and Megan Zullo. Now-senior Jasmine Watson contributed a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards while current-redshirt-junior Carolann Cloutier added 10 points and four assists.
Coming From Near And Far Millie Niggeling is the first women's basketball student-athlete in program history from Iowa, while Canada is represented by three Minutewomen; Kim Pierre-Louis (Ontario), Carolann Cloutier (Quebec) and Rashida Timbilla (Ontario) and Kiara Bomben originally hails from Australia. Jasmine Harris, Adriana Jordan and Aisha Rodney represent Michigan while two players are from within the Massachusetts borders in Amber Dillon and Victoria Stewart. UMass also has one student-athlete each from Indiana (Jasmine Watson), New Jersey (Nola Henry), Ohio (Ronni Grandison), Tennessee (Dee Montgomery) and Texas (Emily Mital).
All That Jas Watson played in and started all 29 UMass contests as a junior and paced the Minutewomen with 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds during the 2011-12 campaign. Watson recorded a team-best 48 blocks, hit 49.0 percent of her field goal attempts (141-of-288) and averaged 28.7 minutes played per game. Watson scored double-digits in points in 21 games in 2011-12, including reaching double-double status in four contests. The South Bend, Ind., native also led UMass in rebounding on 15 occasions. Four games into her fourth season at UMass, Watson has totaled 1,042 career points (12.3 ppg), 591 rebounds (7.0 rpg) and 132 blocks (1.5 bpg). Watson, the 2009-10 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year, is currently fifth on the program's all-time list for career stuffs and ranks third in blocked shots per game.
New Minutewomen Faces Bomben transferred to UMass prior to the 2011-12 season and was required to sit out the campaign as per NCAA policy. The Australia native spent her first two seasons with Florida Gulf Coast before transferring and will be looked upon as a leader on an off the floor in 2012-13 as Bomben was named a captain with seniors Dee Montgomery and Jasmine Watson. The five 2012-13 true-freshman are Nola Henry, Jasmine Harris, Adriana Jordan, Victoria Stewart and Rashida Timbilla. Henry started at point guard for Trenton Catholic (N.J.) during the squad's run to the NJSIAA Non-Public 8 Championship in 2010-11 while Harris averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds for North Farmington (Mich.) as a senior in 2011-12. Jordan was twice named an all-state recipient at Port Huron (Mich.) and won the Nike National Championship with the U-15 Motor City Suns. Stewart is a local product, hailing from Amherst, and was named a Franklin-Hampshire County All-Star and Daily Hampshire Gazette First Team honor at Amherst-Pelham Regional. Timbilla played one year for prep school Northfield Mount Hermon (Mass.) after attending John McCrae Secondary in Ontario, where she average more than 20 points and 14 rebounds per game in 2010-11.
Women's Basketball Radio Show On WMUA
Octavia Thomas Selected To UMass Hall Of Fame
The No. 2 scorer in program history, Thomas was a major force in the program's resurgence in the mid-1990's. During her career from 1993-1996, Thomas helped turn a program that had won nine total games in the previous three seasons into one that made the WNIT and the NCAA tournaments during her junior and senior campaigns.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 
