LOWELL - The collegiate careers of Megan Zullo, Cerie Mosgrove and Stephanie Lawrence came to a close Thursday when the University of Massachusetts women's basketball team lost 77-66 to Charlotte in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at the Tsongas Center.

"It's pretty weird" that this is the end, said Mosgrove. "It's a little bittersweet but mostly not ready for it. It's sad. We wish we could have gone longer, it's been a fun year."

No. 5 Charlotte matched the 12th-seeded Minutewomen basket-for-basket throughout the game, and used its height to grab offensive rebounds and create second-chance opportunities for itself. Charlotte finished with 21 offensive rebounds to UMass' nine.

"Overall their athleticism overwhelmed us so that was tough to deal with from the get-go," said Mosgrove. "We weren't able to really handle that as well as we should have, but our game plan was good, it just wasn't executed the way it should be, so it was a tough day for us."

UMass fought to within six points midway through the first half, but Charlotte stretched the lead back to 11 five minutes later. The Minutewomen trailed 36-26 at the break and had a difficult time getting the lead under 10 points in the second half.

"It seemed like we were down a lot more in the second half, but then you look up and you're only down by 10 or 15 points at the most," said Mosgrove. "I really think that our runs were good and we had good spurts, we just weren't able to build on it. At that point we had to get the stops together and that was critical but we weren't able to do that."

Junior center Jasmine Watson was a force inside for the Minutewomen, finishing with 25 points and eight rebounds.

"She was great and really has been lately, and that's great for the team in the future because they're going to be a phenomenal team and she's going to be one of those critical pieces to the puzzle," Mosgrove said. "She did as much as she could have done for us to get the win."

Charlotte's 6-foot-3 forward Jennifer Hailey led the 49ers with 18 points and nine rebounds.

"She was tough. She was making a lot of shots and that was the key difference," said Mosgrove. "They were making them and we weren't, and if we were, we couldn't stop them so that was difficult."

Charlotte (22-8) will play No. 4 Richmond (18-10) in the quarterfinals Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Minutewomen finished their season 7-23.

"I was real impressed with our effort today," UMass first-year coach Shannon Dawley said. "I just liked our grit, we just kept running at them. They'd get a lead and we'd come back at them. I told our girls in the locker room that it's a credit to our girls' character. ... This season didn't go as planned, we would have liked to have had a better season, but these girls just kept fighting and that just says a lot about their character."

Dawley was optimistic that this was a season her team could build off in the future.

"There's a lot to build on," said Dawley. "The young players got key experience so that will help with things like the new recruits and explaining the system to them, and it's always good when you end the year with a good fight like we had today with a lot of young kids on the floor. That just gives you hope for the future."