Xavier staves off fierce UMass rally
1
AMHERST - After the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team rallied to make Wednesday night's game close in the second half, Jordan Crawford took over for Xavier and broke the Minutemen's hearts.
UMass erased a 17-point halftime deficit and had a one-point lead with 4 minutes, 40 seconds left.
But Crawford, who leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring, hit back-to-back 3-pointers as the Musketeers regained control and escaped the Mullins Center with an 87-79 win.
"Crawford really took over and made some big-time plays," Minuteman coach Derek Kellogg said.
Ricky Harris, who had his best offensive game in weeks with 24 points, scored 20 in the second half. His 3-pointer with 10:48 left capped the surge and brought UMass within two at 58-56.
He led the Minutemen out of the break on a 23-8 run that rattled Xavier.
"In the second half, that was as good as Ricky played all year," Kellogg said. "At times he was the best player on the floor."
With just under eight minutes left, a layup by Harris on the break tied the game at 62-62 and a free throw by Anthony Gurley gave UMass the lead at 63-62 with 7:28 remaining.
The lead ping-ponged back and forth for three minutes with neither team going ahead by more than a point until Crawford took over. He hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 4:12 left to put Xavier up by two. Gurley tried to answer, but his 3-pointer was short. Crawford hit another 3 to stretch the Musketeers' edge to 74-69 with 3:30 left.
Freddie Riley missed a 3-pointer at the other end and Jamel McLean delivered the knockout blow with a 3-point play that gave the visitors an eight-point lead with 2:45 left.
"Jamel was the difference down the stretch," said Xavier coach Chris Mack, whose team stayed in first place in the Atlantic 10 at 8-1 (16-6 overall) . "We went from a one-point deficit to a five-point lead and gave our team a lot of confidence."
Kellogg said he was disappointed with the result but proud of his team's effort.
"Our guys regrouped at halftime and really put a little scare into them," Kellogg said. "I thought our guys played tough. The way we played in the second half is how I envision our team hopefully playing for 40 minutes at some point.
"I'm going to take some positives out of the game that our team fought and competed," he added. "We're going move forward and try to continue to get better."
Javorn Farrell had a career-high 12 points and four assists for the Minutemen (8-14, 2-6 A-10). Terrell Vinson added 11 points and Riley had 10 for UMass.
Crawford's 25 led the Musketeers, while McLean had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Terrell Holloway scored 16 points for Xavier and Jason Love added 15.
At halftime it looked like the Musketeers would be able to pick their score. After the Minutemen hit three early 3-pointers and led 13-10, the giant in blue seemed to wake up as Xavier tore off an 18-0 run.
Even things that looked good for UMass went Xavier's way. With 2:14 remaining, Harris led a UMass break off a steal and attacked the basket expecting a layup, but Crawford, who was trailing the play, timed Harris' shot perfectly for a block. That launched a Musketeer fast break that finished with Mark Lyons burying an open 3-pointer.
The play started a 10-2 half-closing run for Xavier which led 50-33 at the break.
Harris said the Minutemen came out of intermission with renewed resolve.
"We put all our egos aside. I had to stop forcing shots. At the beginning of the game I was forcing a lot of shots and not playing within the team concept," Harris said. "We came out, got a few steals and made some plays to make that run."
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.
