AMHERST - Add Charlotte guard Derrio Green to the list of players to have career nights this season against the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team.
The sophomore guard had 34 points on eight 3-pointers - a record for a Minuteman opponent - as the 49ers pulled away for a 72-58 win over UMass Saturday night at the Mullins Center.
"We played hard and rebounded the ball, but the one kid Green came out and had a career night," Minuteman coach Derek Kellogg said. "We're a little bit of a work in progress, but I think we're going to continue to get better."
An'Juan Wilderness scored to open the second half to put the visitors up by 36-26. But UMass went on a 10-1 run to get within 37-36 with 16 minutes, 10 seconds to play, bringing the season-best crowd of 6,003 fans to life.
But the Minutemen's offense dried up after that. They had just one field goal in the next 10:21. Charlotte (16-5, 6-1 Atlantic 10) took advantage and stretched its lead to 58-41 to clinch the game.
"We switched our defense from man to zone and played a lot of zone in the second half," 49ers coach Bobby Lutz said. "I thought that was a big key to the win."
UMass continued to rebound well against one of the biggest and most physical teams in the Atlantic 10. The Minutemen won the board battle 44-39, led by Sean Carter with 10 and Terrell Vinson with eight.
But little else went right. The Minutemen were 4-for-28 (14.3 percent) from 3-point range, 6-for-12 from the free throw line and 24-for-70 (34.3 percent) from the field. They turned the ball over 17 times.
"You don't want to rely on shooting ... our defense and rebounding have gotten better, but we need to make shots," Kellogg said.
UMass senior guard Ricky Harris agreed.
"It's tough. We shot the ball decently against St. Joe's (in Wednesday's 87-80 victory) and came out with a good win," Harris said. "We came home and felt confident, but it didn't roll in our favor."
Harris was not the problem. He seemed to put his offensive slump behind him with 25 points. He had more than two 3-pointers (three) for the first time since early December. Anthony Gurley added 11 points.
Green and Phil Jones (12 points) accounted for almost two-thirds of the 49ers' points by themselves. Senior point guard Dijuan Harris had five points, eight assists and seven rebounds for Charlotte.
Things don't get much easier for the Minutemen (8-13, 2-5 A-10), who host Xavier at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Mullins Center in a game that will be televised on CBS College Sports.
Charlotte, Temple and Xavier are tied for first in the Atlantic 10 with 6-1 conference records.
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.
