Minutewomen Head To Rhode Island For Key A-10 Match-up On Saturday At 2 P.M.

Feb. 8, 2008

AMHERST, Mass. -

UMass women's basketball (11-11, 3-4 A-10), fresh off a thrilling 66-63 victory at La Salle on Wednesday, concludes its two-game road trip by heading to Rhode Island to take on the Rams (10-12, 3-4 A-10) on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Ryan Center. The Minutewomen and Rams are currently tied for ninth-place in the Atlantic 10 standings, making it a key battle for position in the conference standings.

Rhode Island is coming off an exciting 57-55 victory at Fordham on Wednesday afternoon. Safi Mojidi hit a shot with three seconds left to lift the Rams to victory in what was a close game throughout.

These two teams met on Jan. 12 to start the A-10 season, with UMass winning convincingly, 91-53, at the Mullins Center. Both clubs have gone 3-4 since then.

UMass and Rhode Island share five common opponents this season: Boston University, Providence, Boston College, Xavier, an Fordham. The Rams went 1-4 against that group, with the lone win coming against Fordham. The Minutewomen were 2-3, with the difference being a win over Boston College.

UMass is 2-9 away from home this season, while Rhode Island is 5-6 at home.

Jan. 12's victory vs. Rhode Island was the 150th win of UMass head coach Marnie Dacko's career. She currently has 73 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 Mike Walsh 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.

After Saturday's game at URI, UMass will return home to host No. 14/13 George Washington in a 7 p.m. A-10 contest on Wednesday at the Mullins Center.

LAST TIME VS. RHODE ISLAND

The dynamic duo of seniors Pam Rosanio and Kate Mills scored 23 and 19 points, respectively, to lead UMass to a 91-53 victory over Rhode Island in Jan. 12's Atlantic 10 women's basketball opener at the Mullins Center. Rosanio was 7-for-8 from the field and a perfect 7-for-7 at the foul line, while Mills shot 8-for-12 from the floor. Stefanie Gerardot added 12 points and freshman Stephanie Lawrence set a new career-high with 10 points. Sakera Young dished out a team-high six assists.

UMass' 91 points was a team-record at the Mullins Center and the club's highest offensive output since Jan. 14, 1981, when the Minutewomen defeated Maine, 97-62, at the Curry Hicks Cage. They went on to tie that 91-point mark 10 days later, defeating Yale, 91-57, on Jan. 22.

For the game, UMass shot 52.9% (27-51) from the floor and was 5-for-9 from 3-point range. The Minutewomen went 32-for-36 from the free throw line, coming within one of the team record for makes from the charity stripe. Rhode Island shot 35.8% (19-53) was 7-for-19 from long-range. The Minutewomen won the battle on the glass, 35-26.

SERIES HISTORY

This will be the 62nd time the two teams have met in a series that dates back to 1974. The Minutewomen lead the series, 33-28, and have won two-straight and three of the last four meetings. Last season, the teams split their two games against each other with each winning on their home court. That trend continued this season, with UMass' 91-53 conference-opening win on Jan. 12 at the Mullins Center.

This year's class of seniors for UMass has posted a 3-4 record against Rhode Island in their careers, including a 1-2 mark at the Ryan Center.

Marnie Dacko is 4-7 in her career vs. Rhode Island, with all 11 games coming while coaching at UMass.

SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND

Rhode Island is 10-12 overall this season and enters Saturday's game 3-4 in A-10 play. After starting A-10 play with a loss at UMass, the Rams took on No. 13 George Washington and took the defending regular season conference champs down to the wire before eventually falling, 48-45. Back-to-back wins against St. Bonaventure (56-48) and at Saint Louis (82-73) followed. URI then dropped a pair of games to Temple (48-34) and Xavier (80-63) before beating Fordham on the road Wednesday at Safi Mojidi's shot with three seconds left, 57-55.

The Rams are led by 5-6 senior guard Safi Mojidi at 13.9 ppg. She shoots 42.7% (44-103) from 3-point range and has led the Rams in scoring the last six games. 5-10 junior Amanda McGrew scores 8.2 ppg and makes 34.6% (36-104) of her attempts from behind the arc. 5-8 junior Crystal Bellinger joins them in the backcourt and is the top play-maker, dishing out a team-high 82 assists. 5-10 junior forward Sierra Cooper is URI's top post player, scoring 7.9 points per game and leading the team in rebounding (6.0 rpg) and field goal percentage (.483).

Tom Garrick is in his fourth season as head coach of the Rams. The 1989 Rhode Island alum took over for 21 games on an interim basis in 2003-04 before being named head coach for the following season following a short stint as an assistant at Virginia. He has compiled a 43-85 record (.330) in that time. After a stellar playing career in which he led the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1988, Garrick played four seasons in the NBA with the Clippers, Spurs, Timberwolves, and Mavericks.

LAST TIME OUT

After being held to just two points in the first half, Kate Mills scored 15 second half points, including the game-winning shot with 38 seconds left, to lead UMass to a 66-63 victory over La Salle on Wednesday night at Tom Gola Arena. The senior captain scored 11 points in the final six minutes and finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Pam Rosanio turned in a gutsy effort, leading the Minutewomen with 19 points and keeping them in the game throughout. Stefanie Gerardot added nine points on three 3-pointers and seven boards, while Sakera Young dished out a game-high seven assists.

La Salle was led by Margaret Elderton's 32 points, including 5-for-7 behind the arc. Carlene Hightower added 22 points for the Explorers.

UMass outshot La Salle, 41.9% (26-62) to 38.9% (21-54), and held a 40-32 advantage on the boards. Both teams shot well from behind the arc, with the Explorers going 9-for-18 and the Minutewomen going 6-for-13.

MILLS CONTINUES TO CLIMB CAREER CHARTS

Kate Mills remains eighth on the UMass all-time scoring list (1,395 pts). With ten more points, Mills will be tied at seventh place with Crystal Carroll (1,405).

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 17.5 per game.

The assists have been coming from a variety of sources. In 22 games this season, junior point guard Sakera Young leads the team with 78. Senior Pam Rosanio is second with 74, while forward Kate Mills has 69. Sophomore point guard Kim Benton has 57 and junior guard Stefanie Gerardot rounds out the top-five with 36.

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 842 assists on 536 field goals (64%).

SHARP SHOOTERS

The Minutewomen boast the top field goal percentage in the Atlantic 10 thus far in 2007-08 with a .446 (536-1201) 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 .530 (169-319) and Pam Rosanio is seventh at .514 (127-247). 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: VS. GEORGE WASHINGTON

The Minutewomen return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 13, when they host No. 14/13 George Washington in an A-10 game at the Mullins Center. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.

It will be the 41st time the Minutewomen and Colonials have squared off, with George Washington holding a 32-8 advantage. Last season, on Jan. 14, the Minutewomen dropped a 61-48 decision to the eventual regular season conference champions in Washington, D.C.

WMUA 91.1 FM and UMassAthletics.com will carry the game with Zach Claudio and Mike Walsh covering the action. Streaming video and Gametracker will also be available at UMassAthletics.com.

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