AMHERST — As the final 20 seconds came off the clock, the Mullins Center crowd came to its feet in ovation. UMass freshman DeJon Jarreau took a moment and looked around as he raised his arms.
The same UMass team that lost its first three conference games, delivered it’s best effort of the 2017-17 season by upsetting Atlantic 10 favorite Dayton, 67-55.
“I was just thinking that should be the outcome every game. We’re way better than we’ve been playing,” Jarreau said. “We have to step it up and keep playing like that.”
With 3:26 left, it looked like the Flyers might have one run left in them. Scoochie Smith stole the inbound under the basket and got the ball to Kyle Davis (16 points, 5 rebounds). The guard completed an up-and-under layup while getting fouled as the Dayton bench sprung to its feet. He made the free throw to get his team within single digits at 56-47.
Charles Cooke stole the inbounds again, but C.J. Anderson stole it back and took off down the floor. He threw a no-look pass to Jarreau streaking down the left wing. The freshman finished the fast break with a one-handed dunk that made it 58-47 with 3:10 remaining.
The play swung momentum back to the Minutemen (11-6, 1-3 A-10) for the rest of the game.
“We’re maturing,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. It’s figuring out how to win. It shows the guys have some character and toughness.”
UMass won despite struggling from the free-throw (11-for-23) and 3-point lines (6-for-21), but its defense more than compensated.
The Minutemen held Dayton to its lowest scoring output of the season, shutting down leading scorer Charles Cooke, who had 9 points and 7 turnovers in his first game back from a back injury, and Scoochie Smith, who also had 9.
The Flyers, who are usually among the league’s least turnover-prone teams committed 19 giveaways, their most of the season.
“I thought UMass played with great toughness and made things very tough on us,” coach Archie Miller said. “From our standpoint I was really disappointed. It was an unexplainable performance in terms of execution.”
UMass made a concerted effort to go inside, scoring its first 10 points in the paint. That opened things for its outside shooting they made five first-half 3-pointers. Rashaan Holloway continued his stretch of strong play with 14 points and 7 rebounds.
Kellogg has been prodding highly-touted guard DeJon Jarreau to do more and the freshman responded with his best overall game in weeks, especially in the second half. He had 9 of his 13 points, 5 of his 7 rebounds, 4 of his 6 assists and all 3 blocked shots in the second half.
Luwane Pipkins added 17 for UMass, which play Rhode Island, Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
“We played as close to 40 minutes as we have all season,” Kellogg said. “We practiced hard for the last couple days. I thought that was key to us playing better this evening.”