HENRICO, Va. – Explorers women's basketball ended their 2023-24 campaign in the first round of the A-10 Women's Basketball Championships to the Massachusetts Minutewomen 54-49.
 
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HOW IT HAPPENED:

• The Minutewomen came out of the gate firing on offense, knocking down shots for the first handful of minutes. The Explorers first answered with a turnover, turned into points by Molly Masciantonio.
• Makayla Miller added a driving layup of her own, which was followed by a Masciantonio free-throw conversion to tie the game at five.
• The remainder of the opening frame was driven by UMass. Chinenye Odenigbo added four points of her own and gave the Minutewomen a 14-7 lead after the first ten minutes of play.
• Scarce offense on both sides was the way the second began, at La Salle would at one point find themselves down 20-11 with 4:07 left in the half.
• Masciantonio kickstarted the Explorer offense, however, adding the first three-point shot of the day for La Salle with 2:43 remaining.
• That possession was followed by a Tiara Bolden three-point shot, cutting the UMass lead to three points.
• The tying shot came from the A-10 All-Rookie Team member, Nicole Melious. Her first points of the day proved to be big tying the game at 20 with 1:10 left in the second.
• UMass would add two more points prior to the half expiring, sending them to the break with a two-point lead at 22-20.
• Coming out of halftime, Melious quickly got La Salle the lead with a three-point shot, but that was quickly answered by Alexsia Rose for UMass.
• A short run for La Salle came after that, with back-to-back scoring drives by way of the three-point shot from Melious and Jolene Armendariz.
• From the 5:55 mark in the third, the Massachusetts defense held the Explorers to just one point the rest of the quarter. Going into the fourth UMass would lead 35-32.
• The Minutewomen would quickly strengthen their lead to seven points in the early stages of the fourth thanks to Odenigbo and Tori Hyduke.
• Down the stretch, both teams exchanged offensive blows, but with 1:48 remaining, Miller would get La Salle within three with a driving layup conversion.
• Some missed shots, and successful UMass free throws later, La Salle would not be able to surmount the lead built by the Minutewomen.

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Nicole Melious represented La Salle as the leading scorer, tallying 17 points in the loss. She went 3-9 from three.
• Molly Masciantonio sat as the only other Explorer to score double-digit points (10), in what would be her final game in a La Salle uniform.
• After going 20-36 from three-point range against Fordham, La Salle was not up to that mark today only converting seven of the 29 attempts.
• The Explorers played from behind for a majority of the contest, trailing for 32:01 of it.