UMass Hoops Survives Late CCSU Surge, Wins 84-77
Minutemen put up 51 first-half points to capture third victory
AMHERST, Mass. - Although UMass got its third win of the season against Central Connecticut State 84-77, it didn’t come without late game errors and a lackluster second half performance.
The Minutemen came into the game with a two-game win streak, after victories over UAlbany and Le Moyne.
UMass came out firing from beyond the arc to register 51 first half points, but an impressive second half display of resilience from the Blue Devils didn’t put UMass head coach Frank Martin’s team in good light.
“That was an embarrassing performance,” Martin said after the game. “In the second half we couldn’t make layups. We never did anything right offensively, other than the one baseline out of bounds play where we made the three. Outside of that, I don’t think we did anything properly today.”
The Minutemen entered the second half up 21, and continued their first half habits of isolation basketball and taking a high volume of three-point shots.
“(The off-ball movement) was awful, it was embarrassing,” Martin said. “It was the whole game. There was not a difference between the first half and second half. It was selfish basketball, guys holding the ball, nobody moving. The difference is we made threes in the first half.”
Central Connecticut answered first out of the halftime intermission with a successful jumper from Max Frazier, and the success wouldn’t stop there.
The Blue Devils scampered out to a 13-0 run to start the second half, and hit two threes to do so.
UMass fought back with a K’Jei Parker three, and more inside success from graduate center Leonardo Bettiol.
However, the Minutemen couldn’t find a way to deliver the one final punch to put the game out of reach. A three got Central Connecticut’s Darin Smith Jr. going, which was immediately complimented by jumpers from James Jones and Nico Ashley.
With 1:39 left in the contest, the Blue Devils made their final push. Smith Jr. knocked down his third triple of the game to cut the deficit to six points. The ensuing Minutemen possession took 23 seconds off of the game clock, but resulted in a Daniel Hankins-Sanford missed layup to gift the ball back to the away team.
After both teams couldn’t score on their next possession, Central Connecticut called a timeout with 42 seconds left, without the ball and down six.
Instead of covering a streaking Jayden Ndjigue player on the inbound, Blue Devil defenders fell asleep on the weak side, allowing a wide open UMass layup. The Minutemen were victorious moments later.
UMass began the first half firing on all cylinders. Threes from Marcus Banks Jr. and K’Jei Parker fired the Minutemen out to an early 8-0 lead.
Parker continued knocking down shots from beyond the arc, pushing his team out to a 23-point lead, its largest of the game. His four first half triples helped spread out Central Connecticut’s coverage to allow Bettiol and Luka Damjanac to have more success in the paint.
“It feels great (to get a new UMass career high),” Parker said. “My team kept finding me, believing in me. Coaches believed in me, but it felt good to get another win here. I can’t do it without my team.”
Parker finished the game with 22 points, going 8/13 from the field, and 6/9 from downtown. Bettiol notched another double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds. However, the big man added seven turnovers.
Despite the win, Martin emphasized the long term goals of the program.
“What we all signed up to do is really hard, and you don’t shortcut your way to winning,” Martin said. “When we play like we played today, you don’t take solace in winning. You take solace in doing things the right way… I want to play the right way.”
The Minutemen return to action on Friday, when they head to the U.S. Virgin Islands to face Charleston in the Paradise Jam at 6 p.m.
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