AMHERST — Make it two in a row for the UMass women’s basketball team, as the Minutewomen used a 17-2 first-quarter run to sail ahead of George Washington en route to a 71-54 win at Mullins Center on Wednesday night.

The Revolutionaries knocked down their first two 3s of the night, but once UMass settled into its extended defensive pressure, the turnovers piled up for the visitors. Minutewomen senior Stefanie Kulesza scored six straight points to turn a 6-6 tie into a 12-6 advantage, and UMass never looked back.

UMass (11-10, 6-4 Atlantic 10) now has more conference wins this season than it did overall victories all of last year.

“I was really proud of our team coming out… setting the tone,” Minutewomen head coach Mike Leflar said. “[It was] 24-12 at the end of the first quarter, and just being hungry to the ball, more physical. And then the way we came out in the third quarter, same way. Just was really impressed with how we answered the challenges… and put enough distance between ourselves and George Washington.”

George Washington turns the ball over at an alarming rate, and with UMass already being a press-heavy team as is, it was a no-brainer for Minutewomen head coach Mike Leflar to ramp up the intensity on that end. It forced the Revolutionaries into 18 turnovers, which led to 20 UMass points the other way.

On the flip side, UMass only turned the ball over eight times – cutting its season average of 16.3 in half.

“We’ve been pressing quite a bit this year,” Leflar said. “We’ve mixed up some presses… There are times where we just want to defend less time in the half court, and I think our full-court defense allows us to do that and I think there are teams that we can really turn over. We were able to do that to GW tonight, and made them uncomfortable to start.”

Led by Kulesza’s game-high 17 points and eight boards, UMass had five players – each of its starters – in double figures. Megan Olbrys put up 16 points and 10 rebounds, Yahmani McKayle tossed in a dozen and five assists and Chinenye Odenigbo and Allie Palmieri each scored 10 points for the hosts.

Leflar has made it clear that the type of team he wants the Minutewomen to be is one that relies on multiple players to score. Sure, there may be one or two consistent players leading the charge, but if UMass can continue to have multiple others step up and contribute at a high level, it’ll be even tougher to defend on a nightly basis.

“I thought that was really great,” Leflar said of Wednesday’s balanced attack. “That’s the team I want us to be, that anyone can step up on any given night. And for us to have five players in double figures I think speaks to that.”

Following the halftime break, where UMass led 38-28, the Minutewomen surrendered a layup to George Washington’s Filipa Calisto to cut the advantage back down to single digits. But UMass responded with a 9-0 run, kickstarted by a Palmieri 3-pointer and capped with another Kulesza layup. The Minutewomen’s lead ballooned to 19, 51-32, with 5:32 remaining.

George Washington would claw back within 10, but UMass kept its foot on the gas and didn’t allow the Revolutionaries to get any closer. The Minutewomen eventually got back up by 20 and their second unit closed things out as they coasted to their sixth conference win.

UMass shot 13-for-15 (87 percent) from the free-throw line compared to GW’s 8-for-17 (47 percent), grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and outscored the Revolutionaries 36-24 in the paint.

It was a complete team win for the Minutewomen. UMass returns to action on Sunday, when it travels to La Salle for a second meeting with the Explorers. The Minutewomen won 82-66 back on Jan. 15.