AMHERST — Through UMass’ five-game losing streak, when the Minutemen have shored up one problem, another hole would break open in the dam.
In Tuesday’s 70-62 loss to Rhode Island, the new problem was missed layups. The Minutemen avoided their customary foul trouble and won the battle on the glass, 42-34. But UMass missed 10 layups, three in the first half and seven as the game got away in the second. Rhode Island’s shot-blocking may have affected some of the shots, but others were just off the mark.
Rashaan Holloway was particularly snake-bitten. He had a double-double for the Minutemen with 12 points and 12 rebounds, but struggled from both the field (5-for-11, all from in close) and the free-throw line (2-for-6).
“He missed six shots but it felt like 26 because it was one foot from the basket,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said.
Holloway was frustrated.
“Those are shots that I make all the time,” Holloway said. “I just haven’t been making them lately. It’s been making me struggle and hurting the team. They throw it to me. If I miss, that’s deflating. I have to buckle down and hope for the best and clean up the way I’m playing.”
The Minutemen still haven’t fixed their turnovers woes. Their 19 giveaways not only led to missed opportunities on offense, but also to 13 Rams points.
“We wanted to hold it to 12 turnovers,” Kellogg said. “We outrebounded them and played pretty good defense and did most of the things we wanted to do, but we had some tough turnovers.”
UMass had a chance to at least make it interesting late. Down 65-59 with 41 seconds left, Ty Flowers got a good look at a 3-pointer that would have brought UMass within one possession, but it was off the mark. Holloway grabbed the rebound but missed another layup and Rhody grabbed the rebound. The Minutemen were forced to foul and Jared Terrell (14 points) made both free throws with 34 seconds left to stretch the Ram lead to 67-59 sealing the result.
Things got away from UMass quickly in the second half. After trailing 33-27 at the break, back-to-back buckets by Holloway cut the deficit to two points, 44 seconds into the second half.
The game hovered between two and six points for the first few minutes. Trailing 39-37 with 15:54 left, the Minutemen had a chance to pull ahead when Luwane Pipkins attempted an open 3-pointer. It was off the mark but Malik Hines snared the board and went back up but was blocked. Seth Berger grabbed the rebound but he missed, too. Nicola Akele cleared the glass for the Rams and started the break that Hassan Martin finished at the other end.
The play started a 12-3 run that left UMass on its heels the rest of the game.
Donte Clark promised after the loss to George Mason that he’d be aggressive the rest of the season, and he delivered in the first half. He stormed out of the gate with 19 first-half points as his scoring and some solid defense kept the Minutemen in the game. He finished with a career-high-tying 30. Akela and E.C. Matthews each added 12 for the Rams (16-7, 8-3 Atlantic 10).
UMass (12-12, 2-9 A-10) will play at Saint Joseph’s Saturday at 2:20 p.m.
“Rhode Island is pretty close to being an NCAA Tournament team and they played with a little more maturity than we did tonight,” Kellogg said. “I thought our guys fought really hard and Donte put up a nice evening on the offensive end of the floor.”