AMHERST — Clinging to a one-point lead over New Hampshire with 12 seconds remaining in the game, the UMass women’s basketball team was set to inbound the ball after head coach Mike Leflar called a timeout to advance it into the frontcourt.

On the ensuing play, a pass was sent to Minutewomen guard Momo LaClair, who was still trying to get over the half court stripe. When LaClair caught the ball, the officials blew the whistle and called a backcourt violation. New Hampshire then called timeout and drew up a play.

The Wildcats found sophomore guard Maggie Cavanaugh, cleared out and let her operate. Cavanaugh drove right, threw up a floater in traffic and banked it off the window through contact to put New Hampshire ahead 46-45 for what was the team’s first field goal in 7 minutes, 27 seconds. After UMass guard Stefanie Kulesza missed a potential go-ahead layup, Cavanaugh was fouled and headed to the free throw line where she made two free throws to put the Wildcats ahead by three.

LaClair’s last-second heave didn’t drop, and the Minutewomen suffered a 48-45 defeat after leading in the final minute on Thursday night at the Mullins Center.

“Obviously, very disappointed,” UMass head coach Mike Leflar said. “I know our whole team is disappointed. I’m certainly disappointed, and a little stunned. I thought we had a real opportunity to make a statement game, even though it’s early in the season… We just played not to lose a little bit, and I just didn’t  love our body language [down the stretch]. I’m disappointed that I have to go backwards and talk about that with this group, because I thought we were beyond that.”

UMass raced out to a 13-4 lead in the first quarter, with Seton Hall transfer Allie Palmieri leading the charge early with a layup and 3-pointer. From there, however, the Minutewomen struggled to score the rest of the first half.

They failed to put points up over the final three minutes of the opening frame, and also went the final 3 minutes, 44 seconds of the second quarter without scoring. On the flip side, UMass’ defense was swarming, and it held New Hampshire without a bucket of its own over the last 4 minutes, 50 seconds of the second quarter – maintaining a slim 21-19 advantage at the break.

“I think we have a lot [of defenses] in right now, and certainly want to press a little bit more,” Leflar said. “I think we could have stayed in some traps early, and after free throws we did a nice job setting up pressure. I want us to have urgency on that end, and I think pressing kind of forces us into having urgency.”

UMass switched from an extended three-quarter court trap to a half-court zone defense quickly and effectively, and mixed in an aggressive matchup defense as well.

The Wildcats turned the ball over 20 times on Thursday, but that only translated to 16 points off turnovers.

“We have to turn those turnovers into points,” Leflar said. “We can’t come up empty handed on those live ball turnovers, and I think at times we did tonight.”

The biggest issue for the Minutewomen was the fact that they, too, encountered several long scoring droughts. The most damaging came at the end of the game, where they didn’t register a field goal over the final 5:34 of game time.

They were getting the stops they needed on defense, but couldn’t capitalize on the other end. UMass missed 10 layups in the contest, going an abysmal 6-for-16 at the rim, and shot 15-for-61 overall – good for 24.6 percent.

“I’m sitting there talking on the bench, and I thought at times we were getting looks and we were getting layups,” Leflar said. “We have to make open shots. If you want to be good, you still got to put the ball in the basket… We have to make layups. We got layups, and my hope is next game we get just as many layups. And we need to make them.”

Palmieri was the lone bright spot for UMass’ sputtering offense. She dropped a career-high 20 points on 7-for-16 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Leflar made it clear that his new weapon has to be the main scorer on that end of the floor, but also emphasized the importance of getting his forwards the ball in the post.

Minutewomen forwards went a combined 2-for-11 shooting on Thursday.

“Allie needs to be our scorer,” Leflar said. “I was happy for her to produce. I called some plays for her, tried to get her involved. I want her to continue to stay aggressive… We just need to find who that secondary scorer is, who’s going to be the one that can get us points in the post. Those are things that have to come.”

UMass (0-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10) looks to get back on track in its second of five straight games in Amherst against Central Connecticut State on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.).