Feb. 1, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. -
MINUTEWOMEN HOST SAINT JOSEPH'S SUNDAY AT 2 P.M.
UMass women's basketball (10-10, 2-3 A-10) closes out its two-game homestand by hosting Atlantic 10 foe Saint Joseph's (10-10, 2-3 A-10) on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Mullins Center. The Minutewomen are coming off a hard-fought 61-59 victory at home over Fordham on Wednesday. The win ran UMass' record at home to 9-1 in 2007-08 and snapped a three-game conference skid.
Saint Joseph's is coming off a 70-67 loss at Temple on Wednesday night. The Hawks erased an 11-point second half deficit to take a one-point lead with under a minute to go, only to see the Owls outscore them, 6-2, in the final seconds to take the victory. Saint Joe's has now lost three-straight games.
UMass will be celebrating National Girls and Women in Sport Day on Sunday. Various women's athletic teams will be hosting a free clinic prior to the game at the Boyden Gym, beginning at 11:30 a.m.
UMass and Saint Joseph's have three common opponents this season: Fordham, Xavier, and Villanova. The Minutewomen went 1-2 against them, with Wednesday's win vs. Fordham and losses on the road to the Musketeers and Wildcats. The Hawks posted a 1-2 record as well, defeating Fordham, 72-47, on Jan. 12.
UMass is 9-1 at home this season, while Saint Joseph's is 5-4 away from home. The Minutewomen have averaged 76.5 points per game in their last four home contests.
With two free throws at the 13:05 mark of the first half of Wednesday's game vs. Fordham, Pam Rosanio scored her 654th point in the Mullins Center to move past Jennifer Butler to become the building's all-time leading scorer.
Jan. 12's victory vs. Rhode Island was the 150th win of UMass head coach Marnie Dacko's career. She currently has 72 victories at UMass and had 80 while coaching at Cornell.
The game 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 and streaming video via All-Access, all at UMassAthletics.com.
After Sunday's game vs. Saint Joseph's, UMass will travel to Philadelphia to take on La Salle in a 7 p.m. A-10 contest on Wednesday.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 49th time the two teams have met in a series that dates back to 1977. The Hawks lead the series, 40-8, and won last season's game after the Minutewomen won the previous three.
In last season's meeting, on Feb. 2, 2007, UMass cut a 12-point second half deficit to three, but couldn't draw any closer as the Hawks shot 10-for-24 from the 3-point range to defeat the Minutewomen, 72-65, at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. Stefanie Gerardot led UMass with 15 points Kate Mills scored 14 points and blocked five shots. Kim Benton added nine points on 3-for-6 shooting behind the arc. Jen Oyler led the Hawks with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
This year's class of seniors for UMass has posted a 3-1 record against Saint Joe's in their careers, including a 2-0 mark at the Mullins Center.
Marnie Dacko is 3-5 in her career vs. Saint Joseph's, with all eight games coming while coaching at UMass.
SCOUTING SAINT JOSEPH'S
Saint Joe's is 10-10 overall this season and enters Wednesday's game 2-3 in A-10 play. The Hawks started conference play with back-to-back wins over St. Bonaventure and Fordham to complete a stretch of five wins in six games. They have since gone on a three-game losing streak, all to conference opponents. The streak started with a 71-53 loss at Xavier, followed by a 56-54 loss at Dayton, and most recently, falling, 70-67, at crosstown-rival Temple on Wednesday.
The Hawks feature a strong presence in the post with 6-3 freshman center Sarah Acker. She leads the team in scoring (11.9 ppg), rebounding (7.6 rpg), field goal percentage (.589), and blocks (29). Acker is surrounded by a large group of guards that can all hit the outside shot, as they shoot 36.5% as a team from 3-point range. 5-8 senior guard Timisha Gomez scores 11.2 ppg and has made almost 44% of her 3-point attempts (21-48). 5-7 junior Jenna Loschiavo (7.7 ppg, .361 3FG%), 6-0 sophomore Amy Gillespie (7.5 ppg, .414 3FG%), and 5-9 senior Amy Wold (7.2 ppg, .306 3FG%) all pose threats on the perimeter as well.
Cindy Griffin is in her seventh season coaching the Hawks and has posted a 121-88 (.579) record. The 1991 Saint Joseph's graduate has a career record of 169-121 (.583), with a previous head coaching stint at Loyola. She has also served as an assistant coach at Loyola and Vanderbilt.
LAST TIME OUT
Alisha Tatham's layup with 7.2 seconds left, followed by a steal in the final seconds gave UMass a 61-59 victory over Fordham in front of 2,487 fans on Field Trip Day at the Mullin Center on Wednesday. Kate Mills registered the 13th double-double of her career with 26 points and 12 rebounds lead the Minutewomen. Pam Rosanio added 15 points and none rebounds, while Tatham finished with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting. Sakera Young dished out a game-high six assists. Megan Mahoney led the Rams with 24 points.
With two free throws at the 13:05 left in the first half, Rosanio passed Jennifer Butler to become the all-time leading scorer at the Mullins Center. The senior has now scored 664 points on UMass' home court, surpassing Butler's mark of 653.
Both teams shot 41% from the floor, while the Minutewomen held a 40-36 advantage on the boards.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Mullins Center has been extra good to the Minutewomen this season. They are 9-1 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 15 points per game more at home (72.6 to 57.7) while allowing over four fewer (62.2 to 66.8). The Minutewomen also shoot much better in the familiar surroundings, 49.6% to 39.3%. 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.
Last season UMass was 8-4 at home.
UMass' Dec. 22 victory over Buffalo was No. 100 for the Minutewomen at the Mullins Center. They currently have a record of 104-59 (.638) 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 up to eighth on the UMass all-time scoring list (1,351 pts), last surpassing Tamara Tatham (1,186 pts) in the process. Tatham, a 6-1 post-player out of Brampton, Ontario and older sister to Alisha, just graduated in 2007.
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 first in the Atlantic 10 in assists with 17.1 per game.
The assists have been coming from a variety of sources. In 20 games this season, Junior point guard Sakera Young leads the team with 69. Senior guard/forward Pam Rosanio is second with 67, while forward Kate Mills has 61. Sophomore point guard Kim Benton has 50 and senior forward Alisha Tatham and junior guard Stefanie Gerardot round out the top-five tied with 30.
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 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 341 assists on 483 field goals (71%).
SHARP SHOOTERS
The Minutewomen boast the top field goal percentage in the Atlantic 10 thus far in 2007-08 with a .444 (483-1087) 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 .526 (151-287) and Pam Rosanio is seventh at .516 (112-217). 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 LA SALLE
The Minutewomen return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 6, when travel to Philadelphia to take on La Salle in an A-10 game at Tom Gola Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.
It will be the 16th time the Minutewomen and Exploers have squared off, with UMass holding a 10-5 advantage. Last season, the Minutewomen defeated the Explorers, 49-47, on Jan. 22 at the Mullins Center. It was UMass' fourth-straight win over La Salle.
WMUA 91.1 FM and UMassAthletics.com will carry the game with Mike Walsh and Chris Marovelli covering the action. Live stats will also be available on Gametracker available at UMassAthletics.com. Streaming Video of the contest will be at www.GoExplorers.com. 
