UMass Hoops Wins Comfortably Over Albany
Late game surges from Bettiol and Hankins-Sanford lead Minutemen to first victory
AMHERST, Mass. - UMass Basketball made it hard on itself early, but pulled away late to grab its first win of the season 83-62 at home on Saturday.
The Minutemen came into the game off of a rough first loss to Marshall 78-72, and faced an Albany team who also fell to a strong Marquette team by 27.
However, UMass took care of business through senior forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford, who led UMass with a double-double, scoring 14 points along with 10 rebounds.
“It feels good, but it’s senior year, so I feel like that is the standard,” Hankins-Sanford said after the game. “I knew after the first game that (tonight) was another opportunity to compete and have fun, and help my guys out better than I did the first game. I was looking forward to it from the end of the (Marshall) game.”
It was the Leonardo Bettiol Show, though, late.
With five minutes left in the game, Bettiol found his calling card. After sitting on head coach Frank Martin’s bench for numerous minutes due to foul trouble, the Italian big man came in fresh and energetic. With 5:01 left to go, Bettiol began his assault by getting to the free throw line.
After hitting both, just a couple possessions later, UMass guard K’Jei Parker delivered an alley-oop pass to the Abilene Christian transfer. Bettiol’s tip shot was off on attempt one, but he finished it off after collecting his own miss.
With 3:41 left in the game, the 6-foot-9 forward delivered the dagger. Junior Jayden Ndjigue drove into the paint and kicked it out to a wide open Bettiol. The Roncade native let go a clean stroke from behind the arc, hitting nothing but nylon. The three-point shot put the Minutemen up 19, and delivered the gut punch to Albany.
“(Bettiol) is a really good player,” Martin said. “I don’t know why nobody gave us credit for signing (him). He averaged (12.7) points per game last season in Division I basketball. He’s a really good player.”
Albany ended the last 3:29 without a made field goal, ultimately displaying the consistency and versatility of the Minutemen defense.
“In the last 10 to 12 practices, we’ve really started to put our foot down in some of our defensive principles,” Martin said. “I thought our man was so good, and we have to learn how to guard… I think we’ve taken big steps forward there.”
UMass opened the half with four straight points from Bettiol, which got them back out to an 11-point cushion.
Parker then caught fire. After going 0-5 from three to start the game, he knocked down two in a row to extend the Minutemen lead up to 14.
UMass continued to attack the rim, courtesy of an Ndjigue score-and-foul. But when the Minutemen needed to kick it out, they would, finding freshman Dwayne Wimbley Jr. for three, extending the UMass lead up to its highest point at 17.
A quick 6-0 run by the Great Danes brought it back to 11 through Zacharie Matulu and Jaden Kempson, but like they did all night, the Minutemen quickly countered through more contested finishes from Parker and Luka Damjanac.
Bettiol’s magic directly followed, sending UMass home with a big first win.
The Minutemen outrebounded the Great Danes significantly, winning the battle 39-27. Specifically, offensive rebounding was key in the win, according to Martin.
“We are going to offensively rebound the basketball,” Martin said. “We preach it, we coach it, we demand it. Albany grabbed 20 offensive rebounds against Marquette a couple nights ago. Limiting them to eight offensive rebounds (tonight), I thought, was a bigger stat, because we spoke about it as coaches coming into the game.”
Hankins-Sanford opened the game up strong for the Minutemen, scoring four of their first six points. Donovan Brown continued the UMass momentum, coming off the bench to score five consecutive points, propelling his team to a 11-9 lead.
Later in the first half, the Minutemen went over three minutes without a field goal. Made free throws from multiple UMass players kept it tied through the under-eight minute timeout.
Good defense and multiple converted free throws gave UMass a respectable six-point lead with five minutes to go in the half. Layups from Bettiol and Ndjigue spearheaded the offensive spurt.
Then, the Minutemen found a rhythm. Tough, contested layups from Danny Carbuccia and Hankins-Sanford began it. A couple possessions later, Damjanac gathered a tough pass in the paint and dished it out to a wide open Hankins-Sanford along the baseline for two more. The 9-0 run shot UMass out to its largest lead at 11.
Former Minutemen Tarique Foster and Jaden Kempson tacked on five quick points before the completion of the first half, leaving the score at 38-32 in favor of the Minutemen.
Hankins-Sanford led the Minutemen with 11 points going into the intermission, going 3-6 from the field, as well as on the boards with five rebounds. UMass shot just 10 percent from behind the arc.
Three-point shooting improved in the second half, with the Minutemen going 5-for-13, on route to their first win.
The Minutemen return to action on Thursday, when they host Le Moyne at the Mullins Center at 7 p.m.
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