After a disappointing loss to Rhode Island on Wednesday evening, the UMass women’ basketball team needed a rebound in a major way. 

It wasn’t the cleanest game against Loyola Chicago, but UMass (12-4) was able to find a win in a 76-59 victory on Saturday afternoon in Chicago, its second Atlantic 10 conference ‘W.’

“Great road win for us, it wasn’t always pretty but we found a way,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said. “I thought we had a better sense of urgency, especially in the second half. We talked about wanting to get to the rim, wanting to get downhill.” 

As much as Verdi preached to his team about pounding the paint, the Minutewomen scored the majority of their points either behind the three-point arc or at the free throw line. UMass was a perfect 20-for-20 at the free throw line, something Verdi said was “unheard of,” and they knocked down 10 triples as a team. Sydney Taylor and Sam Breen led the charge with three triples apiece, and hit six and eight points, respectively, from the free throw line. 

“It was great to see Sydney knock down some threes, Sam kept us afloat in the first half offensively and I thought Syd’s three’s were timely,” Verdi said. “She looked really good attacking the pass and knocking those shots down and that’s what she needs to do. Whenever we can go 10-for-23 from three is a good day for us.” 

Shooting that well from behind the three-point line wasn’t drawn up in the team’s game plan – the Minutewomen tried to have a more even scoring attack than that. But when the shots are falling, they’re falling, and UMass hit its stride the longer the game went on. After going 0-for-4 from behind the arc in the first, UMass was 4-for-7 in the second quarter and 3-for-8 in the third before sinking all three of its attempts in the final frame. 

“It’s not like just because we see zone (defense) we want to start chucking the ball for three,” Verdi said on Loyola’s zone defense. “We want a balanced scoring attack, and we can. But never do we want to be one-dimensional.” 

Four different players hit double-digits in scoring for UMass – Ber’Nyah Mayo (10), Destiney Philoxy (13), Taylor (15) and Breen, who led the team with 23 points.

The first period was a tough one for UMass, which fell behind early and finished the first quarter down 11-10. The Minutewomen came out hard in the second and outscored Loyola 22-13, going into halftime with a 44-35 lead.

The Ramblers (6-10) stayed within striking distance in the third frame, but a 25-point final quarter put the game out of reach for the home team. 

Despite the win, UMass wanted to see some different players on the floor against the Ramblers, especially after the team’s last loss to Rhode Island. During that postgame, Verdi mentioned wanting to make some personnel changes, and that was reflected in the first period against Loyola, where Makennah White, Stefanie Kulesza and Alexzeya Brooks all saw the floor. But despite wanting to get his bench more engaged, Kulesza and Brooks saw just eight and four minutes, respectively. While he wasn’t clear about why he didn’t utilize his bench as much as he wanted to, Verdi said he hopes that will change in future games. 

“I would have liked to have [gotten] some more minutes for some people, especially in the second half,” Verdi said. “We had to go to the bench early, especially with Ber’Nyah Mayo picking up two fouls early… My goal is to expand our bench, and hopefully we can do it a little bit more in the next couple of games.” 

UMass will get a week off before its next game. It’ll host Saint Joseph’s on Saturday on the team’s Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Day at 2 p.m. 

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