Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Some notes and news related to the UMass Lowell women's basketball team that didn't fit into the latest game story.
FRUSTRATED WITH FOLLIES: The UMass Lowell women aren’t out of the running for the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament, but they’d be on the outside looking in if the season ended today.
The frustrating part about that for head coach Kathy O’Neil has to be that the River Hawks have shown an ability to compete and match-up with some of the best Division 2 squads in the nation.
Stonehill and Franklin Pierce came into the week ranked first and second, respectively, in the WBC East Regional Poll. UML has beaten Stonehill (17-3) and has lost twice to Franklin Pierce (15-4) by a combined seven points.
That’s what prompts comments from O’Neil like “we need to learn how to win” following last week’s lost.
Then there are games like Saturday when they don’t play particularly well, but still remain in the game and keep within two or three plays of either making it a tight game or taking a lead. Somehow, things haven’t broke right for UML in most of those cases.
“We had some opportunities, even down the stretch,” ONeil said. “We missed some layups. That would’ve cut it from I don’t know I think it was nine or eight to four with two minutes to go. That becomes a very different game, but we just didn’t finish.”
O’Neil said she liked the quality looks her team got, but missing those shots hurt the River Hawks.
NOT A LOT OF "V" IN THE "O": The River Hawks junior tandem of Rahshala Valentine and Jen Valente have had offensive outbursts this season, and they tend to have the ball in their hands a lot for UML. But neither got a lot going yesterday on the offensive end.
Valente, who has been sick the past week, turned the ball over five times and took just three shots as she finished with two points in 12 minutes. A couple of the turnovers came from mishandling the ball in the post or at one point simply dribbling off her foot.
Valentine had flashes when she got out in the open court and drove all the way to the basket. She finished with a respectable six points and five assists in 31 minutes. Valentine only took six shots, but part of that can be credited to the fact that players like Megan Berry (10 points) and Revitale Carmon (12 points) were put in positions to take shots.
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DEFENSE: UML’s defensive performance in last week’s tight loss to Franklin Pierce. First, holding Pierce to 62 points is a solid performance considering their 74 points per game average.
While the Leedham sisters Johannah and Jennifer combined for 39 points, the River Hawks gave fits to Johannah Leedham, the reigning Player of the Year in Division 2. She had more turnovers (10) than field goals (seven), and she wouldn’t have surpassed the 20-point mark if UML didn’t throw away an inbound pass with 7.4 seconds left that resulted in a layup for the junior. She finished with 21 points (season average 23 points).
Unfortunately, the River Hawks were losing the battle for positioning against Southern New Hampshire, and that lead to layups and free throws while UML tried to overcome a deficit.
“I don’t think it’s a habit, I think it’s a positioning thing,” O’Neil said about sending their opponents to the free throw line 27 times. “I think we start to get back on our heels a little bit instead of play on our toes. We start to reach instead of move our feet because we’re trying to catch people instead of getting to where we need to be ahead of time.”
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