AMHERST — The UMass men’s basketball team earned its first Mid-American Conference (MAC) victory of the season over Ball State on Saturday, winning 79-71, at the Mullins Center.
Heading into the halftime break, the Minutemen held a 28-25 lead. UMass built upon its early success as the second half got underway, with a 9-0 run helping earn an 11-point lead with just over three minutes to play.
Later in the game, the Cardinals made things interesting, hitting two 3-pointers and a layup with time winding down to shrink the deficit to six. The Minutemen held strong, draining the clock and hitting five of their last six free throws in the final minute of play.
“I feel like we did the things we were supposed to do, we were asked to do,” Leonardo Bettiol said. “Beat the full court press, make our free throws and stuff. [Ball State] made a couple of tough threes at the end. But thankfully, it didn’t really matter.”
Keeping Ball State off the board was a struggle for UMass in the second half, surrendering 46 points after just 25 in the first half.
The Cardinals actually had fewer shot attempts in the final 20 minutes, but increased their field goal percentage from 37.9% to 51.9%, and 3-point percentage from 18.2% to 50%. The biggest change came at the free-throw line, where Ball State made 11 more attempts in the second half.
Luckily for the Minutemen, Marcus Banks Jr. matched the second-half success of his opponent on Saturday. After just one point in the opening frame, the graduate caught fire as the game progressed, going 5-of-8 (62.5 %) from three in the final 20 minutes en route to 17 total points.
“In the first half, I was still getting open shots, the shots that I felt comfortable with, they just weren’t hitting,” Banks said. “I had that same mindset of, ‘Keep being aggressive.’ My teammates were encouraging me at halftime and telling me to keep shooting. So [I kept] that mindset into the second half, and then [shots] were just falling in the second half.”
Bettiol led UMass in scoring against the Cardinals, finishing his day with 20 points and eight rebounds. The graduate went an efficient 7-of-9 from the field on Saturday, while providing an anchor on the defensive end.
Daniel Hankins-Sanford finished with a double-double against Ball State, scoring exactly 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. K’Jei Parker’s 14-point performance off the bench helped to round out a successful first conference win for the Minutemen.
“We had a rough start, but what’s behind us is behind us, and what’s in front of us is what we can control,” Banks Jr. said. “So we’ve got to take it game by game, day by day, and it feels great. [We can] celebrate this win, but not get complacent, and focus on the next.”
With the victory, UMass improves to 10-7 overall and 1-4 in the MAC, putting a halt to a three-game losing streak. The Minutemen will hit the road next for Western Michigan, looking to build off their positive momentum on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m.
“[Athletic director Ryan Bamford] and the people he answers to didn’t bring me to UMass for us to be [zero and] whatever in conference play,” Minutemen head coach Frank Martin said. “We have a responsibility internally, in that locker room, not to the people that [have] opinions sitting around. They’re worthy of their opinion, and I respect them. I’ve got no problem with that.
“Internally, we have a pressure that we put on each other, that what’s happened for the first four conference games is not acceptable, and we’ve been working to make sure everyone comprehends that [it] has to change,” Martin concluded.