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JERREY ROBERTS

Sean Carter of the University of Massachusetts, left, dunks beside Stefan Perunicic of St. Francis Tuesday at the Mullins Center.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Freddie Riley of the University of Massachusetts, right, shoots over Akeem Bennett of St. Francis Tuesday at the Mullins Center. Riley scored 12 points on four 3-pointers in the 83-65 win by the Minutemen.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Sampson Carter of the University of Massachusetts, center, draws a foul from Alex Harrington of St. Francis, left, as he gets past the other defender, Stefan Perunicic, Tuesday at the Mullins Center. Carter scored 13 points in the 83-65 win by the Minutemen.

AMHERST - What looked like an easy win late in the first half Tuesday night got close enough to make University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach Derek Kellogg nervous for a while before the Minutemen pulled away late in an 83-65 win over St. Francis at the Mullins Center.

When Trey Lang, who had never scored a field goal in a game before, hit a baby hook with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left in the first half to put UMass up 38-21, the game looked like a laugher for the Minutemen (2-2).

But the Terriers (0-4) finished the half on a 9-4 surge that made the halftime score 42-30, and their momentum carried into the second half.

With UMass looking flat, St. Francis attacked coming out of intermission on a 20-9 run that cut the deficit to 53-50. The Terriers had a chance to get within one, but Stefan Perunicic missed a jumper.

Anthony Gurley, who ignited the Minutemen in their win over Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday, lifted them again Tuesday. He scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and hit a layup driving through the lane to put UMass up 55-50.

The Minutemen built their lead from there and pulled away.

"I like to learn lessons from wins," Kellogg said. "There's obviously a lot to work on, like when you get a nice lead you want to make it very difficult on a team instead of giving them an opportunity to come back.

"We don't have the mentality yet to put teams away," he added. "That's something I want our UMass program to have. When we get a team down by a certain amount - that they never come back. It takes time to build that mentality."

Freshman Terrell Vinson said the Minutemen got the coach's message.

"We definitely felt like we let up when we got up a little bit," Vinson said. "We have to learn to break their neck when we get up like that."

The UMass freshmen accounted for over half the Minutemen's points and rebounds with 43 and 18, respectively.

Vinson led the group with 13 points and six rebounds, while Sampson Carter had 13 and five. Freddie Riley scored 12 on four 3-pointers, and senior Ricky Harris added 10 on 4-of-12 shooting.

Ricky Cadell led the Terriers with 17.

"All in all we did some better things tonight," Kellogg said. "We played better defense. We rebounded at times and didn't turn the ball over with as much frequency as we have been."

Harris said, "These guys came out and played to their ability tonight. They've got their confidence up. I'm just proud of these freshman.

"They came out and played like our coach teaches us," he added. "I'm going to have nights like this and I have confidence they can come out and play like they did tonight."

UMass heads to Atlantic City, N.J., to play Rutgers at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Boardwalk Hall in the semifinals of the Legends Classic.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. For more UMass coverage, including a UMass sports blog, go to http://www.gazettenet.com/blog/umass-sports.