AMHERST — There was far more relief than joy on the faces of the UMass men’s basketball team as it walked off the Mullins Center court Tuesday.
For most of the game, the Minutemen playing from behind against a much peskier-than-expected North Carolina A&T team. But UMass shook off tough early shooting night and made some key shots late and escaped with a 65-59 win.
“Our guys did a nice job of fighting their way back and at least clawing their way to a victory,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said.
NC A&T exploded out of the gate and UMass couldn’t make a shot. The Minutemen missed their first seven shots and fell behind 11-0. C.J. Anderson (9 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals) broke the ice with 15:43 left and made one of two free throws shortly after. The Minutemen then missed another six straight and trailed 20-3 with 11:50 left.
Tangibly, DeJon Jarreau’s back-to-back blocks were actually a bad thing. Had either of the two-point shots he blocked went in, it would have prevented Sam Hunt from knocking down a 3-pointer moments later that gave the Aggies their biggest lead to that point, 29-11 with 5:00 remaining.
But the sequence seemed to give both Jarreau and the Minutemen a lift.
The freshman made UMass’ first 3-pointer of the game (after missing their first 12) at the other end starting a half-ending 19-2 run. Donte Clark had all 12 of his first-half points in that run as the Minutemen got within one at 31-30 at halftime.
The momentum didn’t carry over as the Aggies scored the first six points out of intermission forcing UMass to keep chasing. N.C. A&T never led by more than six in the second half, but the Minutemen couldn’t pull ahead until Zach Lewis scored his only baskets of the game, a 3-pointer and a layup off a Malik Hines steal to give the home team a 52-51 lead with 6:02 left.
Davaris McGowens answered with a layup at the other end to briefly regain the lead for the Aggies. But Luwane Pipkins (11 points, five assists, two steals), who’d missed his first five 3-pointers buried one to make it 55-53 with 4:27 left.
It started a 7-0 run that gave UMass a cushion just large enough to hold on. “I was never worried during the game,” Anderson said. “We were just missing a bunch of shots. Nothing was falling. We were trying to mature in the second half. We were trying to focus. We were playing around a little too much. We picked it back up.”
Clark led UMass with 22 points, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots. Sam Hunt had 16 for A&T (1-8).
The Minutemen (7-3) host Kennesaw State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Kellogg shortened his bench with only eight players seeing regular minutes. He used four guards and a two-three zone for long stretches.
“We were struggling to cover their ball-screen offense. I thought going zone corralled them a little bit and we were able to get some runs out of that,” he said. “We have to get back to being serious and really locked in. My focus is academics No. 1 (finals start Friday) and No. 2 is getting this team to be focused, and how gritty and tough they need to be to win games.”