UMass Dominates Le Moyne 94-80, Moves To 2-1
Marcus Banks Jr. goes off for 26 points in win
UMass basketball took care of business Thursday night, winning 94-80 over Le Moyne through a fantastic effort from UMBC transfer Marcus Banks Jr who scored 26 points.
The 6-foot-3 guard shot 53% from the field, and led the Minutemen in points.
“Personally, it felt great,” Banks Jr. said after the game. “Shots were falling and I came out aggressive. Within the flow of the game I was able to score. Physically I felt good. I had a lot more energy than I had last game.”
UMass came in with a 1-1 record, after a loss to Marshall and a win against UAlbany. The win was necessary against a Le Moyne team that finished last season 9-23, and already possessed two losses this season.
The Minutemen were extremely efficient throughout the game, shooting 52% from the field, and 43.5% from three. Last year’s UMass team struggled to shoot the ball from beyond the arc, but they hit 10 in Thursday night’s win.
“We had some great sequences passing the basketball today,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said after the game. “When the ball moves and bodies move, it is hard to defend good shooters… When (Le Moyne) got spread out, (Leonardo Bettiol) started scoring on the inside against them.”
The Minutemen went into the half up 10 points, which quickly ballooned north of 20 in the first couple minutes of the second half. Buckets from Banks Jr. and Daniel Hankins-Sanford got UMass going.
A layup by Bettiol, followed by a three-pointer by freshman guard Danny Carbuccia, gave UMass its biggest lead at 24.
The Dolphins made a late second half charge to cut the lead down to 10 with big triples from Deng Garang and Samuel Hincapie, but it was too little too late.
Thursday night also became the Carbuccia coming out party. The true freshman notched 13 points along with five assists. He shot an efficient 5/7 from the field, and hit timely buckets to provide vital scoring off the bench.
“We’ve recruited good players here, and Danny is another one of those guys that we’ve recruited,” Martin said. “I’m happy he played well because he’s had a great sumer and a great preseason… Today he played with a little pep in his step offensively. He always plays hard defensively.”
Bettiol provided big points and rebounds in the first half to fire the Minutemen into an initial lead. His overall game included 14 rebounds, with three of them being offensive. He also tallied 17 points in 33 minutes.
Efficiency out of the starters was the name of the game for UMass, and no one exemplified that on Thursday better than starting point guard, K’Jei Parker. The 6-foot-2 junior put up 19 points on an efficient 6/7 shooting. He was also perfect from both beyond the arc and at the charity strike.
“The first two games I didn’t feel like myself,” Parker said. “I felt like the coaches and everyone just kept continuing to push me to be myself. Playing off of Banks Jr., he can shoot it and I can shoot it. Just, my team believing in me and things like that (helped me).”
Parker produced those numbers in just 24 minutes, with Martin working 12 guys into the rotation against Le Moyne. Carbuccia contributed, but other bench players struggled to make a real impact, much to the chagrin of Martin.
“Our bench (was a) complete joke, what they did today,” Martin said. “These are my guys, they play (and practice) hard, but that’s unacceptable. That’s total disrespect to what we try to get accomplished every day in practice.”
UMass’ next game is on Sunday, Nov. 16, as the Minutemen will take on Central Connecticut State. The game will tipoff at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN+.