Chaz Williams preserves win for UMass in Atlantic 10 opener over Fordham
1
2
3
4
AMHERST - After missing two free throws that would have stretched the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team's lead from one point to three with 12 seconds left, sophomore point guard Chaz Williams was hell-bent on redeeming himself.
The 5-foot-9 guard leaped into a crowd of taller players and came away with the rebound off his second missed free throw. Fouled again, Williams made both shots from the line and saved the Minutemen's 80-76 win over Fordham on Thursday at the Mullins Center.
"I felt like I almost gave the game away, after missing the first two. I felt like I almost blew the game, missing the first two, so I wanted to use the best of my abilities to get the rebound after the second miss. After I got it, my teammates just told me they had faith in me and a lot of confidence to make them," Williams said. "I don't know. I just wanted to get that ball. It don't matter if there's a freight train in my way, I'd try to run it over to get the ball."
Trailing 79-76 after Williams' two free throws, Fordham had a chance at a game-tying 3-pointer, but Williams fouled Lamount Samuell at the other end with 5.8 seconds left. The Fordham guard missed the first free throw and then intentionally tried to miss the second in hopes of getting the rebound, but it missed the rim and UMass got the ball back on the violation. Williams was fouled again and made one of two free throws to clinch the victory.
UMass (12-3, 1-0 Atlantic 10) heads to Philadelphia for a 2 p.m. game against La Salle Sunday. Fordham fell to 7-7, 0-1 A-10.
"I thought that was a pretty good hard-fought game against a team that's an up-and-coming team. They played St. John's really tough. They knocked off Georgia Tech at home the other night. They beat Harvard and were coming here as a very confident ball club," UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. "I would kind of call that a hang-on win tonight, one that we kind of fought to the end, finally made a couple free throws, and put a good Fordham team away."
A 14-0 run appeared to give UMass a comfortable edge at 58-44 with 12:32 left in the game. But unlike many Minuteman opponents this season, the Rams didn't fold. They scored seven straight to keep their deficit within single digits.
The margin hovered just above and just below 10 for most of the half, but another 7-0 run by Fordham cut UMass' lead from 11 to four, giving the Rams momentum.
Following a missed 3-pointer by Williams, Brendan Frazier walked the ball up the floor with a chance to cut into the deficit. But when Frazier threw a lazy pass toward Samuell, Jesse Morgan alertly darted in and stole it. He put home an athletic layup as Samuell fouled him. Morgan made the free throw to put UMass ahead 74-67 with 2:48 left.
"To have Jesse come up with that steal was the play of the game, in my opinion," Kellogg said. "I think they cut it to four, and to have him get that and-one and make that play gave us a little cushion."
The Minutemen needed all the cushion they could get as Fordham used a 6-1 run in the final two minutes to set up Williams' eventful finish.
Williams shot 6-for-20 from the floor, but finished with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Terrell Vinson led the Minutemen in the second half as 11 of his 14 points and 11 of his career-high 14 rebounds came after intermission. Vinson also helped contain Fordham junior Chris Gaston, who struggled to reach 16 points and shot 7-of-16.
"TV's done a very good job. Usually he's taking on the other team's best player, at least their best frontcourt player the majority of our games since even into last year, and he's done a pretty good job," Kellogg said. "It was nice to see him play physical, play tough."
Five different Minutemen scored in double figures. Raphiael Putney had 10 rebounds to go with his 10 points and a tomahawk dunk that earned an ovation from the Mullins Center crowd. Freddie Riley added 13 points, while Morgan had 12.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
