After dropping three games in a row, the UMass women’s basketball team was very much in need of a bounce back performance on Thursday night.

The Minutewomen certainly got that – and then some.

UMass stormed out to a 26-8 lead after one quarter and didn’t look back, thumping Northeastern 81-50 in a non-conference game at the Mullins Center in Amherst.

The Minutewomen snapped the three-game skid and improved to 3-5 overall. Next up is a trip to Dartmouth on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

UMass hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter to set the tone, and pulled down 17 rebounds (nine offensive) in the opening stanza. The hosts had a whopping 17-2 rebounding edge in the 10-minute period, and held the Huskies to just 3-of-11 shooting.

It was more of the same in the second quarter, as UMass again limited Northeastern to 3-of-11 shooting and outscored them by a 22-8 clip to take a commanding 48-16 halftime advantage.

That was more than enough to send the Huskies packing, and UMass finished with a 42-19 edge in rebounding for the game (including 19 offensive boards) and a 40-16 advantage in points in the paint.

The Minutewomen shot 52 percent from the field and 53 percent from 3 (10-for-19) en route to the season-high 80 points.

Allie Palmieri led UMass with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and also pulled down five rebounds. Megan Olbrys followed with 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and Yahmani McKayle made it three Minutewomen in double figures with 13 points (3-of-4 from 3). All told, nine different UMass players scored points.

Abigail Jegede led all scorers with 20 points for Northeastern (1-6).

UMass now begins a three-game road trip with games against Dartmouth, Boston College and UMass-Lowell. The Minutewomen don’t play another game at the Mullins Center until Dec. 29 when Fordham comes to town to open up Atlantic 10 Conference play.