AMHERST — The UMass men’s basketball team found out rather quickly that a 2-10 Siena team that walked into the Mullins Center on Saturday afternoon was much better than its record indicated, as the Saints gave the Minutemen everything they could handle.
Each time it looked like UMass started to pull away, Michael Eley (30 points), Sean Durugordon (22 points), and the Saints kept hanging within striking distance. But the Minutemen rallied off a 13-6 run – all points scored by Matt Cross or Keon Thompson – to extend their 66-60 lead with under five minutes to go to 79-66, the game’s final score.
Head coach Frank Martin wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance, but UMass did just enough to improve to 9-3 to close out its non-conference slate.
“I’m relieved that we figured out a way to win the game,” Martin said. “We were really, really bad in practice [Friday], which was disappointing. We were listless, had no pop, no fight, no attention to detail, really sloppy – with all those negative adjectives, [playing poorly is] usually what happens. But, luckily they played with some resolve, and played the way this team has become. Some how, some way, we found enough spirit to win the game.”
Cross and Thompson were the catalysts all afternoon, picking up the Minutemen when their energy dropped at different points. Cross stuffed the stat sheet with a near triple-double, recording 24 points, 9 rebounds, 8 steals, 5 assists, 1 block, and no turnovers in 36 minutes of action.
The preseason All-Atlantic 10 Third Team selection was posed as the face of the team before the year started, and his relentless motor is precisely the reason why.
“His growth in the last 12 months has been incredible as a human being, which is allowing him to now become a better basketball player,” Martin said of Cross. “He’s taken on leadership… for the first time ever he’s feeling like a leader. He led today… If they tell me I gotta get in a dark alley, and he’s with me, I know I’m getting to the other side. I don’t even blink. I’m good.”
Cross’ eight steals tied a program record. He had seven in a game earlier this season as well, and it’s clear he’s taken pride on the defensive end – while also leading UMass in rebounding.
“I’ve just gone into this year trying to embrace Frank’s philosophy of setting the tone on the defensive end,” Cross said. “And Keon makes it easy for us. He’s heating the ball up for us all game. When they get pressured, they make dumb passes and it makes it easy for me.”
Thompson poured in a career-high 21 points on Saturday. Through the Minutemen’s first handful of games, the sophomore guard established himself as the facilitator of the team. But noticing the lack of assertion from other guys on the team, he took matters into his own hands.
“It’s never a plan to go for something for me, it’s just the flow of the game and how the game is going,” Thompson said. “First half, I just felt aggressive. The game felt smooth to me. I felt like I didn’t force anything. I just felt confident out there.”
After three games in Hawaii last week, UMass finally returned home to an ample Mullins Center crowd. Game attendance was marked at 4,036 people, and that’s without the students being on campus due to holiday break.
The biggest home crowd of the year helped the exhausted Minutemen wake up following their slow start.
“It was good [to be back at the Mullins Center]. We’ve all been dealing with the whole jet-lag thing, different time zones, we’re tired at different parts of the day, not sleeping at night,” Cross said. “But that’s part of the journey. It was good to finally practice in our gym [throughout the week] and play in our arena in front of our fans… It’s good to see that when you win games, people wanna come watch. It’s good to see some people in the stands with no students.”
Perhaps one of the victims to the jet lag and fatigue was forward Josh Cohen, who entered the day averaging a team-high 19.2 points and 7 rebounds per game. Cohen was nearly nonexistent on Saturday. He attempted only one shot from the field, and finished with season lows in both points (5) and rebounds (3).
Siena did a great job of denying him the ball and ramping up its ball pressure to prevent easy entry passes in, but Martin knows Cohen is too good a player to let either of those things stop him from getting touches.
“Trying, how about trying,” Martin said, referring to what more he needs from his big man. “He’s gotta learn that that’s unacceptable. From the first play of the game, he didn’t run, and it just echoed everything else… Josh is a good player, he didn’t work very hard to go get the ball today. We need him to be good. We’re not where we’re at without him. This team needs him to be good.”
Rahsool Diggins added 10 points, Daniel Hankins-Sanford (seven rebounds, two blocks, one steal) and Jayden Ndjigue (five rebounds) chipped in six points apiece, and Jaylen Curry (five points) buried a 3-pointer that gave UMass a 21-18 lead it would not surrender the rest of the game.
The Minutemen (9-3) return to action on Wednesday in their first taste of Atlantic 10 play. UMass hosts Duquesne (9-3) at the Mullins Center with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.