The need to know
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Follow UMass Women’s Basketball on Twitter (@UMassWBB), Instagram (UMassWBB) and Facebook (UMass Women’s Basketball) for the latest news and updates about the program. Also, fans can follow the head coach Tory Verdi on Twitter @CoachVerdiUMass.
Women’s basketball selected as Atlantic 10 preseason favourites
Massachusetts was selected as the Atlantic 10 preseason favorite with 225 points and all 15 first-place votes after winning the 2021-22 A-10 championship title the previous season. The Minutewomen were ranked in the top five ahead of La Salle (188 points), Rhode Island (184 points), Fordham (183 points) and VCU (152 points).
Additionally, the league announced the A-10 Preseason Awards and placed graduate student Sam Breen and senior Sydney Taylor on the All-Conference First Team, while grad student Destiney Philoxy landed on the All-Conference Second Team and All-Defensive Team. Breen was named last year’s A-10 Player of the Year. She also collected awards for Most Outstanding Player of the A-10 Tournament, All-Conference First Team, and All-Academic Team. Taylor and Philoxy both received A-10 All-Conference Second Team Awards as Breen and Taylor were named to the conference All-Championship Team last season.
Breen finished the year with 571 points (17.3 per game) and 332 rebounds (10.1 per game) to lead the team. She has 17 double-doubles this season, ranked 18th in the nation and last year became the only A-10 player to have more than 10 double-doubles.
Taylor averaged 526 points (15.9 per game) and recorded 83 three-point field goals made, averaging 2.5 per game. She finished the season second in the league with her three points and ranked 20th in the nation.
Philoxy led the Minutewomen with 187 assists, averaging 5.7 per game. Their total support placed them ninth in the NCAA and first in the A-10 conference.
last time out
The University of Massachusetts took it down the street with No. 5 Tennessee and fell 74-65 to the Lady Volunteers last Thursday at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. Four Minutewomen hit double digits that night, led by Sam Breen with 18 points.
Breen hit her first double-double of the season and her 41st of her career and had 12 rebounds for her total. Alongside Breen, Ber’Nyah Mayo, Sydney Taylor and Destiney Philoxy scored 15, 11 and 10 points respectively. Mayo recorded a team-high four assists while Taylor had three shots overall. UMass passed the Lady Volunteers, 49-45, and had the advantage on second chance points, 16-12.
All-time series against Maine
Massachusetts and Maine meet for the 24th time in program history as Maine has a 14-9 lead in the all-time series. The Minutewomen have an 8-4 advantage over the Black Bears in Amherst. UMass and Maine last met on November 19, 2014, when the Minutewomen defeated the Black Bears 68-60 that day.
In the latest polls…
On October 26, 2022, the Minutewomen received a vote in the USA TODAY/WCBA Coaches Poll.
go [Mile]Stone path
Sam Breen and Destiney Philoxy each surpassed their 1,000 on December 8, 2021. career point. They became the women of the 21st and 22nd minutes to accomplish that feat while becoming the third couple in program history to earn it in the same season and the first since 2006-07. The duo could also become the first to reach the milestone in NCAA history in the same game. Breen is now ninth in career points (1,434), overtaking Julie Ready (1,406; 1977-81), while Philoxy is now 13th in career points (1,259) in program history, overtaking Tamara Tatham on the list (1,186; 2003-07). Sydney Taylor will be looking to make her career points list this season as the senior is 47 points from 1,000, 953 overall.
In addition to reaching the career milestone, Breen achieved 1,000 points in the Massachusetts uniform on December 22, 2021 in Hartford. With her UMass career alone, Breen would be 11th on the career points list (1,390). The graduate student also has 776 career rebounds with the Minutewomen to date, placing seventh in all career records, overtaking Tamara Tatham (755; 2003-07) on the list. Philoxy had a career 400+ assists on December 11, 2021 and a career 500+ assists on February 26, 2022. She is now second in all-time career records at 535 so far, overtaking Christel Zullo (533 – 1985). -89). She is only the fourth minutewomen to top 500 dimes and is 43 assists away from overtaking Sabriya Mitchell’s 578 (1994-98) and getting her name engraved first. Philoxy also played in her 100th career game on January 22 with George Washington, while Breen reached her 100th career game in the A-10 Quarterfinals against Fordham (March 4).
Philoxy also put her name on the career steal list, ranking 11th in her career with 160 to date. Teammates Breen and Ber’Nyah Mayo are on the career steal list in the record book as they sit 14th with Pam Rosanio (2004-08) with 130 overall.
head coach Tory Verdi scored his 100th win at the top of Massachusetts in a 76-58 win over Saint Joseph’s in the A-10 semifinals on March 5. His current record with the Minutewomen is 102:80.
Breen, the double double machine
Sam Breen grew her career to 41 double-doubles in 2022-23 after scoring 18 points and 12 rebounds at No. 5 Tennessee had scored.
Breen racked up 17 double-doubles in the historic 2021-22 season at UMass, taking her career to 40. Her 17 double-doubles in 32 games have propelled Breen to 18th in the nation. The graduate student recorded four consecutive double-doubles from November 27 to December 5 and again from January 15 to January 22. Breen was the only A-10 player last season to have as many double-doubles while making the nation’s top 50, while also being the only one to have more than 10 double-doubles.
Breen had 15 double-doubles last season and 23 career league leads, including 14 such performances in the last 19 games of the 2020-21 season, and narrowly missed the feat in the final game of the season against Ohio (3/22–2020). .21) – Finished with 27 points and nine rebounds. She was one of only three players in the A-10 to average both double-digit points and rebounds. She finished second in scoring (18.0 ppg) and fourth in the rebound league (10.0 rpg) last year.
Breen was one of only 12 players nationally to make that many double-double appearances in the 2020-21 season. The last time an Atlantic 10 player had 15 such games was in the 2017-18 season when three players did.
next up
The Minutewomen begin a four-game road series at Harvard on Friday, November 18 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The competition is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
