Jaylen Curry leads UMass men’s basketball past La Salle, 82-60 (PHOTOS)
Published: 01-19-2025 7:17 PM |
AMHERST — In the midst of a UMass men’s basketball second-half avalanche that catapulted it ahead of La Salle by 14 with under four minutes to go, Minutemen guard Jaylen Curry stepped into an open 3-pointer at the top of the key.
Curry confidently put it up, and when it splashed home, he put three fingers to his head and let out a smile – the sophomore knew he had it all working for him on Sunday. On the ensuing possession, Curry pulled down a rebound and was off to the races again. He drove inside and kicked the ball out to a wide-open Jayden Ndjigue, who buried a corner triple right in front of UMass’ bench.
Those long balls were the final two nails in the coffin as the Minutemen outscored the Explorers 25-3 over the final 8 minutes, 40 seconds of game time – breaking open a contest that was tied at 57 – to sail to an 82-60 victory at Mullins Center.
“I told [the team] this morning; I said, ‘Today’s a day where I’m going to find out if we’re really becoming a team, because I’m not going to drag that energy out of you today. It’s got to come from you guys. You’ve worked too hard to become a good team,’” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. “And they did that, and we were tired early in the game, we were a step slow on our rotations. But as the game evolved, we got better there… I think [La Salle] tied it at 55 somewhere in there, and then we popped it open from there.”
Curry finished the day with 22 points, seven assists and no turnovers, perhaps his best outing of conference play after struggling the past couple of weeks. When Sunday’s game was tied at 55 with over nine minutes left, Curry scored the next six UMass points. He played under control but aggressive, and it created open looks all over the floor for the Minutemen.
“It’s been a struggle for me the last four, five games, but just being in the gym at night, early morning, coming in every day, on my bad days, just keep putting up shots,” Curry said when asked how he got over his recent performances. “And I want to give a shout out to coach Frank, and my teammates, because every day, being the point guard, they stay on me – even when I don’t want to hear it… Today they [were] with me, so I had to step up for my guys today.”
UMass led 33-25 at halftime following a rather unattractive 20 minutes of basketball. The Minutemen shot 33 percent from the floor (including 1-for-9 from 3) while La Salle shot 28, each team turned the ball over eight times and neither team shot above 65 percent from the line. But UMass had a distinct edge on the glass (29-22), which helped it dominate points in the paint and second-chance opportunities.
But La Salle opened up the second half scorching, going 13-for-15 over the course of a nine-minute stretch that helped the Explorers erase what once was a 14-point Minutemen lead. Just as quickly as La Salle felt it couldn’t miss, UMass made it look like a lid was on the visitors’ hoop the rest of the way.
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A Mac Etienne dunk with 8:47 remaining was the last field goal the Explorers would convert until a breakaway jam with two seconds left after UMass had already begun celebrating its win.
The Minutemen flipped a switch late in the second half and turned on the afterburners.
“We’ve kind of had experiences like this in prior games, and it’s one thing our coaches have been big on – just weathering the storm,” Ndjigue said. “In our [under eight media] timeout, coach [Brian Steele] said, ‘Alright, that’s our bad stretch of the game. Now it’s time to turn it up and close the game out.’ It really motivated us, and that’s what we did.”
Rahsool Diggins and Daniel Rivera combined for 75 points in UMass’ 120-118 triple overtime thriller against Fordham on Wednesday, with nobody else on the roster contributing much offensively. On Sunday, it was everyone else who stepped up. Daniel Hankins-Sanford (10 points, nine rebounds) played his best since returning from a fractured hand that kept him out of the lineup for nearly a month, Jayden Ndjigue recorded career-highs in blocks (5) and rebounds (13) while adding nine points and Malek Abdelgowad (10 points, eight boards) put forth his most respectable effort against a Division 1 opponent this season. Diggins did also score 17 points on 20 shots, but it was the others who came through to give UMass a boost.
Ndjigue set the tone with his defensive effort, flying around to alter shots in the paint and scrapping to come up with any loose ball he could. The Minutemen fed off the energy brought by the sophomore.
“He just prepared and acted on the moment,” Martin said of Ndjigue. “When he plays with that aggression defensively, on the ball, off the ball, it allows him to then play aggressively offensively.”
Make it three wins in four tries for the Minutemen (8-11, 3-3 Atlantic 10), which now move to two games behind George Mason for first place in the A-10. As this UMass team continues to play more games together, it’s evident the players are developing more of a connection and feel for one another.
Martin is optimistic about what the past two weeks may represent for the rest of the season.
“This has been coming for a while,” Martin said, referring to the blowout win. “We’ve learned how to compliment and help each other before we criticize each other… We’ve been figuring it out, and I think that starts giving you confidence, regardless of who the next [opponent] is… Now that we’ve won a couple games, we’ve handled those difficult moments better. It’s given us tremendous confidence.”
UMass hosts George Washington (13-5, 2-3 A-10) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Mullins Center.