AMHERST — Sharing really is caring for UMass.
The Minutemen’s offensive woes were solved for one game by a commitment to passing the basketball. For 40 minutes Sunday at the Mullins Center, UMass was consistently in motion on offense and the open shots that it had missed before were now more open and going in. The movement spaced the floor, and the Minutemen’s best players shined as everyone turned into a pass-first player.
Carl Pierre made 6 of 9 from behind the arc for a team-high 22 points while Luwane Pipkins dished out nine of the team’s 19 assists, and UMass snapped its seven-game skid with a 77-70 win over Rhode Island.
“I don’t know how many passes we had in the game, but multiple guys were touching the ball on a possession,” coach Matt McCall said. “It wasn’t like run one pick-and-roll and try to find a shot. That’s how we have to play. And that’s against a team that’s denying, pressuring, hard-hedging pick-and-rolls, the ball was really moving around.”
The offensive motion was centered around the two towering presences UMass (8-12, 1-6 Atlantic 10) utilized in the post. Djery Baptiste and Rashaan Holloway combined for 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting from the floor, providing some interior scoring that had gone missing from the Minutemen’s repertoire in conference play.
The two forced the issue the most in the first half with six points each and creating matchup nightmares for the Rams (11-8, 4-3 A-10). Those early buckets helped to give the Minutemen some confidence with seeing the ball go through the hoop, and the offense blossomed from there.
“Djery and Rashaan’s presence inside and those guys making some jump hooks, that helped alleviate some pressure,” McCall said. “We relied so much on the three-ball against St. Bonaventure, their presence inside really opened some things up and freed some things up for us on the perimeter. It was nice to see those guys (step up).”
UMass also made it a point to attack the rim with greater aggression than it had shown in conference play. Pipkins and Keon Clergeot, the Minutemen’s two primary ballhandlers, sliced and diced their way into the lane at will and created openings for their teammates. They kept the Rams guessing with dump-offs to the forwards, taking it to the basket themselves or kicking it out to an open guard.
That type of aggression also gave Jonathan Laurent the space to operate on offense as he fully recovered from an ankle injury that kept him out of the game at Saint Louis earlier this month. He made all four of his shots and scored 10 points against Rhode Island to match his output from the last four games combined.
“In practice, there was more of an emphasis on drive and kick and get easier shots for everybody,” Laurent said. “As soon as you get some easy shots in, you just need to see a couple fall to get into a rhythm. Coach was starting to stress that, get more paint touches, kickouts, one extra pass to get your teammate a better shot.”
Pierre, though, was the biggest beneficiary of UMass rediscovering its inside presence, and he returned to his sharpshooter form in front of the electrified home crowd. He made four 3-pointers and scored 16 points in the second half as he sank into the groove UMass has been waiting for him to find. He was more comfortable shooting the ball and the shots had a more natural flow to them.
The big difference was the type of passes Pierre was receiving, which mostly came from the interior instead of the perimeter. Although it may not seem like a huge change, the inside-out passes help shooters position their feet better and give them more time to take a shot. Pierre said those kickouts give him a bigger advantage over a defender, who is now scrambling to rush back to his mark.
“More times than not, when that ball is coming from the paint, it’s a closeout,” Pierre said. “So I can shoot it, I can rip it and drive, pull up for a jumper, get to the lane, there’s a lot more options off those type of passes.”
And at the middle of UMass’ offensive resurgence was Pipkins, who clawed his way to 12 points despite shooting just 2-for-14 from the floor. He never found his stroke on jump shots, but he stayed aggressive and deposited two layups, the second of which turned into a three-point play.
Although he didn’t contribute putting the ball through the net, he was the sparkplug on UMass’ defense and became the distributor he is capable of being. He showed a fearlessness to continue to attack the rim and help UMass stave out any attempt Rhode Island had at mounting a comeback.
“He was terrific,” McCall said. “Forget his shooting percentages in the game, he had nine assists, 12 points, 8 of 9 at the free-throw line. Everybody’s running at him, they’re blitzing him, they’re throwing bodies at him, they’re hip-checking him and he’s getting down the lane and having confidence in his teammates.”