BROOKLYN, N.Y. – After barely hanging on to stay close in the first half, the game got away from UMass in the second.
VCU’s defense, which the Minutemen handled so well a month ago in Amherst was too much for them in the rematch as UMass fell, 85-70, Thursday in the Atlantic 10 Tournament at the Barclays Center.
The Minutemen completed season at 14-18. VCU will face St. Bonaventure/Davidson in the semifinals, Saturday at 4 p.m.
VCU coach Will Wade said he expected the Minutemen to beat Rhode Island, Thursday and spent more time preparing for UMass with that in mind.
“UMass is a good team. They’re playing really well here at the end of the year. Hinds is playing well. They clubbed us up there pretty good,” Wade said. “We kind of expected UMass to win that game. I spent most of the week preparing for UMass … You know, we were prepared for both, but we definitely put a little bit more time into UMass.”
The Minutemen had less than 24 hours to prepare for the Rams after being Rhode Island and the preparation gap showed. While VCU has built a brand on its perimeter play, its inside dominance dictated the game.
The Rams outrebounded UMass 49-31 and turned 20 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points. The Minutemen actually shot better from the field but the rebound discrepancy helped led to VCU getting 15 more shots.
“VCU played a great game today. They obviously won the game on the backboards with 20 offensive rebounds that turned into many points. I thought that was the difference in the game,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “I thought our guys competed, fought, battled. We just didn’t do a good enough job of keeping them off the glass, which was something obviously we spoke about, didn’t really work on but we spoke about it, tried to simulate some things that they might try to do, and they were the better team today.”
Led by four from Mo Alie-Cox’ four, the Rams blocked seven UMass shots. The early rejections seemed to created a threat of more which caused the Minutemen to at times be hesitant or alter the trajectory of their shots.
“We didn’t convert (those shots) into points, and they ended up converting it into points for them,” UMass senior guard Trey Davis said. “Our points turned into their points, so that kind of slowed us down.”
Leading 39-30 at halftime, VCU scored the first four points out of intermission causing Kellogg to call an early timeout, but it didn’t stop the train. Led by Melvin Johnson (19 points), VCU opened the half on a 19-4 that was a knockout blow as UMass couldn’t recover.
The bright spot for the Minutemen continued to be freshman big man Rashaan Holloway. In a career-high 29 minutes, he had 16 points, and a career-high eight rebounds, two blocked shots and two assists.
“The last couple weeks, my mindset is I have was just to be dominant when I’m in the game,” Holloway said. “Just as simple as that. I’ve just got to be dominant and be a low-post presence.”
Cox tipped his hat.
“It reminded me of like freshman year when I was guarding Josh Smith from Georgetown,” Cox said shaking his head. “I couldn’t see around him. It took all my energy just trying to get in front of him, but once I got in front, they would hold the ball so long, he would like fight back and get position, so I just tried to do my best to hold him off.”
Kellogg hoped Holloway’s effort was a sign of things to come.
“Rashaan showed what he’s capable of doing in short bursts,” Kellogg said. “As he continues to get in great shape. I think he has a chance to be a dominant big man in our league.”
The game was the final collegiate contest for three UMass seniors. Trey Davis and Jabarie Hinds each cracked double digits in their last games. Davis finished with 20 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Like he did Thursday, Hinds led UMass with 10 first-half points and finished with 16. But the Rams contained him and pretty much everyone else on the roster other than Holloway in the second half until the game was well in hand.