AMHERST — UMass found the shots it wanted against George Mason’s defense for almost the entire game Wednesday.
The passes to Rashaan Holloway in the post created scoring chances both around the basket and on the wings. The ball moved around the perimeter efficiently and exposed the cracks in the Patriots’ zone. The Minutemen even had the right people in the right spots to shoot those open shots they worked hard to create.
But the shots didn’t go in the hoop at the Mullins Center, and George Mason got its tough shots to fall. The Patriots made more of their chances count in the final 6 minutes, 40 seconds, using a 13-2 run to pull away for a 68-63 win and send UMass to its fifth straight defeat.
“You can’t be mad at the offense because we’re getting the shots that we want,” forward Jonathan Laurent said. “We just need to make shots at the end of the day.”
In the minutes that preceded George Mason’s game-changing run, UMass continued to show off its resilience. Luwane Pipkins picked up his third foul with the Minutemen trailing by seven points, but UMass (7-10, 0-4 Atlantic 10) scored the next eight points, capped by a 3-pointer from Kieran Hayward in his first appearance in conference play. Once Pipkins returned, he promptly hit two straight 3-pointers to give UMass the lead again and Hayward punctuated the spurt with another 3-pointer that forced Patriots coach Dave Paulsen to use a timeout.
When the teams returned from the break, though, UMass lost its shooting touch. The Minutemen missed eight of their next nine shots as the Patriots built a seven-point advantage. Meanwhile, George Mason (10-8, 4-1 A-10) was able to will through some difficult shots and made all six of its free throws during the run. The backbreaking sequence was Justin Kier’s floater with 3:10 left that gave the Patriots a five-point advantage and then UMass coming up empty.
“We got whipped off the bounce there a couple of times where (Kier) was able to get down the lane,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “He came to a jump stop and made a big floater, that’s just a great play, I don’t think the defense was bad. The problem was we missed two open jumpers in their zone, we turned it over twice, we missed a wide open 3 in the corner twice. All of a sudden, those go in and it’s a different game.”
One of the big reasons UMass stayed competitive with George Mason was its 40-35 edge in rebounding, a major change from the three meetings the teams had last year. In the middle of that effort was fifth-year senior Holloway, who grabbed seven of his 11 rebounds on the offensive end. Several of those offensive boards came by collecting his own miss and finishing at the rim.
Holloway finished with 11 points for his first double-double of the season, but his streak of 23 straight made field goals came crashing to a halt. He was 5 of 10 from the field despite getting easy chances near the rim, a product of how much extra work he made for himself by trying to do too much on the block.
“I want him to stop dribbling,” McCall said. “Anytime he puts the ball on the floor, he puts himself in harm’s way. He did that a bunch in the first half and it almost took him out of a rhythm and it’s why he missed some bunnies there under the basket. He’s got to post up in the lane and just go … but he was definitely a force on the backboard.”
UMass hung around as well despite not having a scorer reach double figures until 1:50 remained in the game, a Holloway putback on an offensive rebound. Carl Pierre joined Holloway with 11 points on a corner 3 with 11.5 seconds left, but otherwise it was a hodgepodge of different players stepping up at different moments as all 10 players scored for UMass.
Curtis Cobb scored all seven of his points in the first half, Hayward hit the two big 3-pointers in the second half for his only points while Pipkins gutted out nine points on just 3 of 12 shooting. The fact UMass could rally to take the lead without its leading scorer was also a major confidence boost for the team’s scoring depth. Laurent said those moments show just how much the team has grown from last year when Pipkins had to do it all at times for the Minutemen on offense.
“Pip did a lot last year to get us over the hump,” Laurent said. “This year, he’s not having the same year as last year, but he has more help on the team. We just have to find the clicking point until we take off.”