AMHERST — Sean East wasn’t going to risk it with just 0.6 seconds on the clock.
Northeastern was leading by a point at the end of a back-and-forth first half and East had no reason to try and chuck the ball 80 feet in a desperation heave. UMass was in a good position heading into halftime that it didn’t need East to attempt anything too dramatic.
But Matt McCall told him to shoot it and see what happens, even if the coach didn’t believe it would go in.
“I was just about to hold it, but the coaches told me to try and score,” East said. “I was just like, OK, I’ll just let it roll as far as I can go then shoot it and it just went in.”
East sprinted off the floor with his teammates in celebration, not waiting for the referees to even confirm that the shot left his hands in time. The mood in the UMass locker room changed when the shot hit nothing but net, looking as pure as if he hit it from 15 feet with no defender around him. All of a sudden the Minutemen had a two-point lead and the momentum was squarely in their favor.
“It’s super energetic,” junior Carl Pierre said. “Everybody’s talking, everybody in there is super confident thinking that we can come out and be aggressive and kind of run away with it.”
That’s exactly what UMass did in the second half Tuesday night, riding every bit of energy from the crowd and bench to an 80-71 win over Northeastern at the Mullins Center. The Minutemen made 54 percent of their shots in the second half, but more importantly connected on 8 of 13 from behind the arc to help separate themselves from the Huskies.
It was UMass’ best shooters, too, that found a groove with East, Pierre and T.J. Weeks combining for six of those 3-pointers. It wasn’t even complicated either as UMass was able to use freshman Tre Mitchell on the interior to open up space for their shooters to execute.
“We were just taking what was open,” East said. “They were going under screens, we were shooting them. They were overplaying stuff and focusing on Tre, so we were kicking it out to shooters and we were just finding people.”
Pierre had entered the contest struggling with his offense, although he was making an impact on the game in other areas. Earlier in the second half, he went to the rim twice on the dribble and missed the layup both times. But his first made 3-pointer also was his most important as it staked the Minutemen to a seven-point lead.
It came with 8:30 remaining when Keon Clergeot pushed the pace after a Northeastern miss. He waited patiently for Pierre to filter in behind him and pitched him the ball for a rhythm 3-pointer that swished home and forced a timeout from Northeastern. McCall left the bench as animated as can be and sprinted onto the floor to meet his team as the refs ushered off the rest of the Minutemen who had celebrated while hustling back on defense to set up the press.
“The shot that Carl hit on the break, first of all, the guts it takes to take that shot in crunch time,” McCall said. “But he’s earned the right to shoot that because of how hard he works. That’s our captain and when it left his hand, I was like ‘I can’t believe he’s shooting that,’ but I felt like it was going in.”
The threat of Mitchell in the middle proved to be difficult for Northeastern (2-1) to defend, especially early in the game. The freshman scored UMass’ first eight points as the Minutemen and Huskies started a track meet between the two centers in the early going. Mitchell’s eight points were matched by Tomas Murphy, who was able to exploit the UMass defense for easy layups and dunks with no one around him.
Mitchell, meanwhile, dragged Murphy out to the perimeter and showed off his jump shooting. He caught Murphy with his hands down twice and drilled 3-pointers to help keep UMass in the game while Northeastern was scoring seemingly at will at the other end.
“It kind of set the tone for us as a team,” Mitchell said. “I saw an opportunity and just took advantage of it, and the shots were falling and it just got everyone amped up.”
The victory pushed UMass to 3-0 for the first time in four years, but it was far more important to the Minutemen than just another win. McCall said he tried to put an extra emphasis on the importance of this game to his team because he knew what it meant to the program on a larger level. And the team fed off that energy and it translated onto the floor Tuesday night and perhaps will have a broader effect on the team.
“We stressed to these guys the last two days, UMass has got to continue to earn respect,” McCall said. “It starts with beating teams in this area and protecting our home floor. Our guys were fired up, you could feel it before the game. There was an energy level in the locker room, there was an energy level in practice, it was great, it was fun to be out there and coaching.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re moving in the right direction.”