Spiders strike early, end UMass season
1
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team ran out of magic Friday night.
The Minutemen saw firsthand why Richmond is considered a lock for an NCAA Tournament berth as the Spiders made 11 3-pointers. A desperate late-game surge by UMass came up short as the Minutemen fell 77-72 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Boardwalk Hall.
UMass finished its season at 12-20 -- its first 20-loss season since 1982-83.
No. 3 Richmond (25-7) advanced to face No. 2 Xavier at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals.
The loss ended the Minuteman career of Ricky Harris who finished as the third all-time scorer with 1,960 points. He had a tough night shooting the ball, making just seven of 20 shots and one of nine 3-point tries for 19 points.
"I'm pretty disappointed right now," Harris said. "I've been here four years and we only won one Atlantic 10 Tournament game. I can't be happy about that.
"It's tough right now," he added. "I'm upset with myself and feel like I let my teammates down today."
UMass coach Derek Kellogg saluted his departing senior.
"It's tough to lose a player like Ricky Harris and the class and perseverance and character that he's shown throughout his career," Kellogg said. "He's been an asset to our program. To see him go is difficult.
"I'm fortunate I was able to coach him," he added. "... He's one of the faces of UMass basketball."
When the teams met during the regular season on Jan. 13, the Minutemen wiped out a 14-point deficit to force overtime before the Spiders won 70-63. But UMass could not quite repeat the feat on Friday.
Anthony Gurley tried to lift the Minutemen with 19 of his career-high 24 points after intermission, including seven straight that brought UMass within 46-38 with just under 11 minutes left in the game. But Richmond went on a 15-6 surge to increase their lead back to 17 points.
The Minutemen made one last run to get within four with 50 seconds left. After Gary Correia hit a 3-pointer, he stole the inbounds pass and hit Harris for a 3-pointer that made the score 71-67.
After Kevin Anderson made two free throws for the Spiders, Terrell Vinson scored inside with 17.3 seconds left. But Richmond kept making its free throws as Justin Harper knocked two down. Harris was fouled shooting a 3-pointer and made all three from the line to cut the deficit to 75-72 with 7.3 seconds left.
But the Spiders threw a touchdown pass to David Gonzalvez who dunked with 5.7 seconds left to clinch the win.
"Even though we got down, our guys kept playing and competed to the end," Kellogg said.
In the Minutemen's back-to-back wins leading up to this game, they avoided the big early deficits that often plagued them in losses this season.
But Richmond opened a 38-21 halftime lead that put UMass on its heels. The Minutemen had hoped to keep the Spiders from shooting well from the outside and control the glass, but Richmond was hot from outside and made 9-of-13 3-pointers in the first half and outrebounded UMass 18-16.
"They shot lights out tonight," Kellogg said. "That was my biggest worry."
Harris agreed.
"It was tough. They got a lot of good looks and they took advantage of all of them," he said. "That put us in a hole early."
The halftime deficit marked the fourth time this season UMass trailed by 17 points at the break.
Gonzalvez led Richmond with 15 points, while Kevin Anderson (13), Ryan Butler (14), Justin Harper (13) and Kevin Smith (14) joined him in double figures.
Terrell Vinson had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Minutemen.
NOTES - UMass Chancellor Robert Holub was among the 6,027 fans in attendance.
After ending their eight-year losing streak in the Atlantic 10 Tournament with a 59-56 win at Charlotte on Tuesday, the Minutemen could not snap their losing streak in Atlantic City. The loss was their sixth straight at Boardwalk Hall.
UMass has lost four A-10 Tournament games in the former home of the Miss America Pageant and dropped two earlier this season to Rutgers and Michigan State as part of the Legends Classic in the building.
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.
