UMass basketball: Rhode Island survives for 42-40 win in Minutewomen’s final A-10 home game

AMHERST — Emotions continued to run high well past the 40 minutes of action between the UMass women’s basketball team and Rhode Island. The two rivals had not only just played their last-ever Atlantic 10 matchup, but it was also the Minutewomen’s senior night – where they recognized Stefanie Kulesza and Mikenzie Jones. Head coach Mike Leflar and Kulesza both shed tears in the post game press conference following UMass’ 42-40 loss to the Rams on Sunday afternoon at the Mullins Center.

Leflar arrived in Amherst as an assistant coach in 2018, and when Kulesza came on board as a freshman in 2020, the two developed a player-coach bond. The second-year UMass head coach had to pause when talking about his fifth-year senior.

“Obviously for me, this year has been a hell of a lot of fun to coach because of the way this team responds each and every single day. Stef’s attitude is a big part of that,” Leflar said before taking a moment to continue. “And that’s the legacy she will leave and I expect our team will respond tomorrow at practice and we’ll move on.”

“I’m grateful for all of it,” Kulesza added, referring to her career wearing maroon and white. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Of course UMass’ season is far from over, and Leflar made sure to state that. The Minutewomen are sixth in the league and have played the majority of teams across the A-1o tough, so they certainly could make some noise in the conference tournament.

Because Leflar’s mind is still on this season, it hadn’t quite sunk in that UMass just played its final game at the Mullins Center as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference – which the school was a founding member of back in 1976.

“I know why we’re crying, but we do have a lot of basketball to play,” Leflar said. “So I have not really thought about anything other than the game, and what I’m talking about pregame and post game. We have a lot of season left and a lot of things we are doing well on the court.”

With UMass trailing 41-40 Sunday and with possession of the ball in the final 20 seconds, Leflar called timeout to draw up a play. The Minutewomen inbounded the ball, and Rhode Island elected to use its foul-to-give almost immediately. That gave Rams head coach Tammi Reiss a chance to see what play UMass was going to run, thus prompting Leflar to use his final timeout to come up with something different.

Out of the huddle, UMass freshman Yahmani McKayle caught the ball near the half-court circle. She dribbled around looking for an avenue to attack, but turned the ball over on the baseline with four seconds remaining. Kulesza fouled two seconds later, Rhose Island made one-of-two at the line, and Megan Olbrys had to heave a shot from beyond half court that never had a chance.

The Minutewomen were unable to pull out a close one against the Rams for the second time this season – they lost 60-58 on a last-second shot in the Ryan Center on Jan. 22.

“It’s fitting that our game ended the way it ended with the history of both teams, the battles we’ve been through,” Reiss, who has been the head coach at Rhode Island since 2019, said. “I respect this program… The job Mike has done, the turnaround Mike has had. But with them leaving the conference, I thought the battle in Rhode Island was fitting, and now this the way it ended [is too]. Win, lose or draw, this is the way I wanted to go out. Last possession of the game. Thank god we were on the winning end. But I will say this, that was some ugly basketball.”

That it was, as UMass started both halves going the first 4 minutes, 30 seconds without a point. And in the fourth quarter, the Rams went that same amount of time without a point until Sophie Phillips buried a 3 to put Rhode Island ahead 39-38. Olbrys responded with a layup to jump the Minutewomen ahead 40-39 at the 2:44 mark, but they didn’t score again and a pair of Anaelle Dutat free throws gave Rhode Island the lead one last time.

Both sides combined for 40 turnovers and neither team shot better than 33 percent.

Kulesza scored seven of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. She didn’t record a point in the second and third frames, but she began asserting herself over the last 10 minutes. Those seven points came in a four-minute window that put UMass ahead 38-36 prior to the aforementioned Phillips 3, and Kulesza was the only Minutewomen player to score in that stretch.

Kulesza led the way with a double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds) for UMass, Olbrys added 11 points, seven boards and three assists, McKayle scored nine points and Allie Palmieri chipped in seven. Lilly Ferguson provided some big minutes off the bench for Leflar, grabbing seven rebounds, taking two charges and making several other effort plays.

The Minutewomen did plenty enough to win Sunday’s contest, but they never could capitalize when they got stops on the defensive end.

Leflar is confident that’ll change as postseason play looms large.

“I know we’re going to be in this position in a game like this in the next two weeks,” Leflar said. “And we have to understand what it takes to close it out. I’m excited for that… I hope we’re in two or three more like this, because that means we keep playing.”