AMHERST - After hurting one Atlantic 10 men's basketball team's chance for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, the University of Massachusetts will take a crack at another as the postseason begins Tuesday.

The Minutemen (11-19, 5-11 Atlantic 10) earned the No. 11 seed in the conference tournament and will travel to Charlotte to play the sixth-seeded 49ers (19-11, 9-7 A-10) at Halton Arena at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Charlotte beat UMass 72-58 on Jan. 30 at the Mullins Center.

The 49ers moved into the sixth spot when Dayton fell 71-66 to Saint Louis on Saturday, dropping the Flyers to No. 7. Richmond defeated Charlotte 89-84 in overtime Saturday.

The winner of the first-round game between the Minutemen and 49ers will play No. 3 Richmond (24-7, 13-3 A-10) at 9 p.m. Friday in the tournament quarterfinals at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

The other first-round matchups, all at 7 p.m. Tuesday, are No. 9 Duquesne at No. St. Bonaventure, No. 10 George Washington at Dayton and No. 12 Saint Joseph's at No. 5 Rhode Island.

Temple (26-5, 14-2 A-10) and Xavier (23-7, 14-2 A-10) shared the regular-season title, and the Owls earned the top seed in the tournament with the Musketeers at No. 2. They, the Spiders and the fourth-seeded Billikens all have first-round byes.

UMass coach Derek Kellogg said he is glad his team has a chance to keep playing.

"I would have been really disappointed if we weren't able to play any more games," he said. "I'll be disappointed when the season does end, #cause I'm enjoying watching this team grow. I think their attitudes have been great.

"I'm glad we're going to be able to go on the road and play another game and see if we're able to take a step forward."

Senior guard Ricky Harris said he thinks the Minutemen could advance in the tournament.

"I think we can make a run at it," Harris said. "All of our games against the top teams, except for Dayton, we haven't really been blown out. We've been right there with those teams.

"I feel like we can hang with those guys," he added. "If we stay on this path we can make a run at it."

Freshman forward Javorn Farrell shares his optimism.

"This is a new season right now. We're undefeated," Farrell said. "I honestly believe we can make a run to the A-10 championship."

MILESTONE - Harris scored 28 points to lead UMass in its 69-67 win over the Rams on Saturday. He now has 1,917 career points, passing Lou Roe (1,905) to move into third place on the all-time Minuteman scoring list.

Ahead of Harris are only Jim McCoy (2,374) and Monty Mack (2,183).

DEJA VU - For the second straight year, UMass beat Rhode Island in the last game of the regular season. On March 7, 2009, Chris Lowe was sprung by a Matt Glass pick for a driving layup at the buzzer that gave the Minutemen at 72-71 win.

Like that loss, Saturday's defeat may have crippled the Rams' chance for an NCAA at-large bid because a loss to under-.500 UMass will be a significant drawback in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee.

Last year Rhode Island lost its first game in the A-10 Tournament to Duquesne and settled for a trip to the NIT, where the Rams beat Niagara before losing to Penn State.

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.