UMass basketball: Minutemen find second wind, hold off West Virginia in Springfield 87-79
Published: 12-17-2023 12:18 AM
Modified: 12-17-2023 12:19 AM |
SPRINGFIELD — The UMass men’s basketball team clung to a one-point lead with three minutes remaining in the game. Its once 18-point lead had vanished.
Over the next 2 minutes and 15 seconds, the Minutemen dug in on defense, and finally got over their biggest issue this season – free throw shooting – to break off an 11-2 run.
UMass cashed in 15 0f 18 attempts from the charity stripe in the waning minutes to seal an 87-79 win over West Virginia in front of an electric MassMutual Center crowd in the Hall of Fame Classic on Saturday night.
It’s extremely difficult for a team to relocate the rhythm and flow it established and lost in the middle of a basketball game during such an important stretch. But the Minutemen found a way to do it, and it earned them their biggest win of the season against a Big 12 opponent.
“I’m just proud of these guys, for obvious reasons,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. “The hardest thing to do when you kind of lose your focus in the middle of a game is regaining the disciplines that gave you a chance to win the game [in the first place]. We got a big lead, made a couple mistakes, and we allowed two mistakes to become six… All I told the guys is that somebody’s gotta have the courage to go make a shot. And then we went out, and they played loose… then closed it out making free throws.”
The Minutemen had a massive advantage in every notable statistical category at halftime. They lead 19-0 in fastbreak points, 24-6 in points in the paint, out-rebounded the Mountaineers 25-14, led 17-7 in bench points, and more than doubled them up in assists (13-6) – which gave them a 44-29 boost back to the locker room.
Everything was going right for UMass, until West Virginia head coach Josh Eilert evacuated from man-to-man defense and switched into a zone. The Minutemen were dominating their one-on-one matchups – specifically Josh Cohen, who finished with 19 points and seven rebounds – and penetrating the paint at will. The zone kept them out on the perimeter, and that’s when the Mountaineers clawed back into the game.
“We didn’t execute for awhile there,” Cohen said. “We got kind of all outta whack, and we’re working on it… As you’re gonna see this team grow, things like that are gonna slowly stop happening. We’re gonna be able to take that lead from 10 to 15 to 20.”
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West Virginia tied the game at 62 with 6:30 remaining in regulation thanks to UMass’ disorganization offensively (nine of its 14 turnovers came in the second half) and hot shooting from Quinn Slazinski (20 points) and Kerr Kriisa (20 points). On the ensuing possession, Cohen banked home a layup. The Minutemen rebounded a missed free throw on the other end, and took off looking for more.
Rahsool Diggins missed a 3-pointer, but Keon Thompson skied for an offensive rebound and kicked it back out to Diggins, who swung it to the corner where Robert Davis Jr. stood all alone. The freshman fired up a 3 with no hesitation, and swished it home – his sixth make from distance on the night – to put UMass ahead by five and seize control of crunch time. He finished with a career-high 18 points.
Back in the first half, Davis Jr. made three consecutive 3s as part of a 24-5 Minutemen run, and turned around to look at UMass legend Marcus Camby sitting courtside. Camby pointed at the freshman and nodded, giving his approval of the gutsy heat check.
“Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve been trying to build a real great community within each other,” Davis Jr. said. “First within our team and with Coach Frank, then with other older guys that came before us, like Camby. It was really just fun out there showcasing what we are as a team, because honestly, everybody had a career night in my opinion.”
Despite the obvious rough patch in the middle of the second half, UMass played its best game of the season to date. The Minutemen, especially their young guys, needed a contest against a physical, proven program like West Virginia ahead of Atlantic 10 play – it’s only going to help them moving forward.
Davis Jr., Jaylen Curry, Marqui Worthy, and Daniel Hankins-Sanford each played big minutes on Saturday, and contributed heavily to UMass’ 30 bench points.
“When you’re coming into a year with a bunch of [younger players], you wanna see what their poise is gonna be like in an atmosphere like this. And you see it tonight, all these guys are so mature beyond their years,” Cohen said. “You’re either gonna get un-glued in the moment or you’re not. And we had a bunch of guys just come together tonight. They made runs, we made runs, and at the end, we were able to finish it out the last four minutes. It was just an unbelievable win for us.”
Saturday felt like a game that UMass teams of the past few seasons wouldn’t have pulled out. Almost every game the Minutemen built a lead in during the 2022-23 season, they eventually went through a bumpy stretch and lost all control. History seemed to be repeating itself when the Mountaineers tied it up, and with their firepower – Kriisa and Noah Farrakhan – back in yellow and blue for the first time this year, the stars aligned for another UMass letdown.
But this group is different, and Martin recognizes that.
“Almost every game we had a lead, and then we’d have that meltdown, and then we’d fold,” Martin said of last year’s team. “That was frustrating. This team doesn’t do that. This team figures out a way to stay connected and figure out a way to believe in each other and the team and what we do… I’m the only guy with bad body language right now. Those guys are awesome.”
The Minutemen (6-2) next travel to Honolulu, Hawaii for the Diamond Head Classic for three games, first against Georgia Tech on Thursday at 9.m. on ESPN2.