PITTSBURGH – UMass survived and advanced.
The Minutemen survived a stretch of 7 minutes, 43 seconds without making a field goal.
They survived a 14-0 second half run by Saint Joseph’s.
They even survived DeJon Jarreau tapping the ball into his own basket in crunch time and advanced past the Hawks, 70-63, Wednesday in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Minutemen will face St. Bonaventure Thursday in the second round at 2:30.
“To come away with a win, after a couple of those things that happened, there’s some relief,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “But also, I think these guys deserved it.”
Up 66-61, the Minutemen looked to be in position to clinch the win when James Demery missed a jumper and the rebound caromed right to DeJon Jarreau. But in his haste, he volleyballed it back off the backboard and in for a St. Joe’s basket that made it 66-63 with 14 seconds left.
Jarreau inbounded the ball to Zach Lewis, who was quickly fouled. As they walked down the court, Jarreau pleaded with Lewis to make up for his miscue. The junior guard made both, and for good measure stole a Chris Clover pass with 6 seconds left.
“I’m like, ‘Z, hit these for me.’ He hit them so it was good,” Jarreau said. “It’s just something funny. We joke around about it but we still won and if it was the other way around it wouldn’t be a joke.”
His teammates razzed him after the game suggesting the play might end up on TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal-led NBA blooper segment.
“We got to the locker room and I said, ‘that’s going to be on Shaqtin the Fool,’” Lewis said.
That the game would even have tight moments seemed improbable not long before. In a season where there haven’t been many easy nights, UMass looked like it might get one. Luwane Pipkins (13 points) hit two 3-pointers in an 18-6 run that gave the Minutemen a 58-39 edge with 7:49 left. When he hit the last one to cap the run, the bench was cheering and celebrating as Pipkins gestured excitedly to a pro-UMass pocket of the PPG Paints Arena crowd.
But with it’s season in the balance, Saint Joseph’s didn’t roll over. Back-to-back jumpers by Brendan Casper started a 14-0 run as the Minutemen missed seven straight shots and watched their lead shrink to 58-53 with 4:12 left.
UMass’ offense never got back on track, but it’s defense did enough to slow the Hawks. Donte Clark hit 1-of-2 free throws with 3:21 left and neither team scored again until Clover knocked down a jumper with 1:00 left. St. Joe’s started fouling immediately and Clark again made just 1-of-2, but Demery made just 1-of-2 at the other end to make it 60-56 with 54 seconds left.
UMass made free throws, while the Hawks made baskets to keep things tight before Lewis (14 points) rescued Jarreau.
Jarreau said there was some kind of gift in Lewis future for sparing him the humiliation that would have come had the play cost UMass the game.
“Yeah I got him. I’m going to hook him up with something,” Jarreau said.
C.J. Anderson, who led UMass with 17 points, said the team got too protective of its lead.
“I felt like we got a little complacent. We saw the lead and we was trying to slow the ball down,” he said. “I felt like we could have kept attacking them but that’s pretty much it.”