AMHERST – No one came to save the UMass men’s basketball team.
Central Connecticut State forward Keenan Amos stuck a 3 with 3 minutes, 9 seconds to halftime that gave the Blue Devils a four-point lead and capped a 12-3 run. He scored nine points during that stretch.
UMass coach Frank Martin didn’t call a timeout even as his debut teetered into treacherous territory Monday at the Mullins Center.
“I wasn’t calling timeout. I needed to find out what our team was made of,” he said.
Nails, apparently.
The Minutemen held CCSU scoreless for the next 5:08 and constructed a methodical 16-point run that suffocated the Blue Devils and led to a 94-67 victory.
“That’s what we want our culture to be, just pressuring guys, you know what I mean?” UMass center Isaac Kante said. “Not trying to let teams run the offense, make them uncomfortable.”
As UMass (1-0) discomforted the Blue Devils (0-1), the Minutemen became more comfortable around each other. They distributed 24 assists, and six players reached double figures led by T.J. Weeks Jr.’s 16. Freshmen RJ Luis (14 points) and Keon Thompson (10 points) showed maturity and feel beyond their years in their regular season debuts. Luis didn’t register a turnover, and Thompson delivered key baskets when the game was in the balance.
“It’s our first time playing with each other, in a real, actual live-type game and I just felt like it just took some time,” said Kante, who had 13 points and six rebounds. “Obviously second half we kind of played like ourselves.”
UMass outscored the Blue Devils 53-34 after halftime and shot 71.9 percent from the field. Dyondre Dominguez poured in 13 of his 15 points and grabbed four of his seven rebounds in the second frame.
“Dre was going crazy,” Weeks said. “It felt like we really stomped on their necks and ended the game right there.”
Dominguez checked in with 15:01 left and the Minutemen leading 55-39. Over the next 6:31, he made five layups and a 3 and blocked a shot, flexing after most of them with his 23 extra pounds of muscle this season.
“It put them away, and it gave us life,” Kante said.
UMass led 74-54 when he checked out at 8:30 and pushed that lead to 32 during the second half when Kante flipped in a layup over his shoulder with 5:49 left that made it 84-52.
The Minutemen out rebounded CCSU 48-29 and grabbed 19 second-chance points.
“I was real happy that when we were playing really bad in the first half that we decided to go to the identity that we fought to create rather than go to the identity of blaming and hanging your head. That was fun. You only learn that in the middle of a game,” Martin said. “Those things are important. We talk about those things a lot. To be able to do those things means a lot to me.”
The 4,963 in attendance was the most at a UMass basketball game since Dayton and Obi Toppin visited in Jan. 2020. Capacity is 9,493.
“We need our fans, man. That was awesome. You’re walking out of the tunnel, you can feel when there’s people in the stands and I could feel the the energy in the building. We’re halfway there,” Martin said. “We’re gonna get it there. We’re gonna get this place rocking again.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.