AMHERST — The passion in the postgame press conference exceeded what UMass demonstrated on the basketball court Tuesday.
The frustration expressed over a poor defensive performance at the Mullins Center might have been better used to fuel the Minutemen. They lacked a consistent urgency on defense and the players were a step slow on everything. It was an early daze that doomed UMass in a 74-71 loss to in-state rival Harvard.
“I just felt like we came into the game with a lack of awareness right out of the gates,” forward Jonathan Laurent said. “We gave them a good lead, so it pretty much set the tone for the game. We picked it up too late, and we just laid down and took it. It wasn’t enough, we weren’t paying attention to details, giving them easy baskets, just letting them hang in the game.”
The lackadaisical UMass defense allowed Harvard – which was without 2016-17 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Bryce Aiken and reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Seth Towns – to shoot nearly 55 percent from the floor in the first half and build an eight-point halftime advantage. The Crimson (2-1) built that lead by capitalizing on almost every miscue the Minutemen (2-1) made in the game. It was quite literally true on missed boxouts as Harvard converted each of its four offensive rebounds into second-chance points in the first half.
The bigger issue, however, for UMass was not being able to close out possessions when it was in good position. Countless times, the Minutemen would slow down the Crimson and force them deep into the shot clock only to concede points in the final seconds.
“In the first half, I don’t know how many times we got the shot clock under 10 and didn’t get the stop,” coach Matt McCall said. “It was either blown by off the bounce, shot goes up and offensive rebound, but that’s where you really have to dig in and find a way to get a stop. We weren’t able to do that enough.”
The halftime scoreline would have been far worse if not for the effort from Luwane Pipkins, who scored 18 of his game-high 36 points in the first half and had a hand in 10 of the 12 baskets UMass scored. The rest of the Minutemen shot just 27 percent from the floor in the first half while taking poor shots and not moving the ball well.
McCall said he believed the lack of offensive success led to some of the defensive issues, particularly when it came to hustling back in transition. He said his team didn’t take enough pride in its defensive effort when the offense wasn’t clicking as well.
“I was really disappointed in the first half with how we played the game offensively, and that completely bled into our defense,” McCall said. “We were self-consumed, we took bad shots and we weren’t guarding. Eventually, it’s not scouting, you’ve got to sit down and guard the ball, eventually you’ve got to block out, you’ve got to do those types of things and take some pride in doing them.”
In the second half, the Minutemen began to show they cared more on defense and the deficit began to shrink. After trailing by nine just 90 seconds into the half, UMass went on a 10-2 run over the next five minutes to make it a single-possession game. The lead fluctuated a bit until Tre Wood gave UMass its first lead with 10:55 left in the game.
The Minutemen and Crimson traded small advantages for the next three minutes before Harvard took the lead for good with a 5-0 spurt. UMass cut the deficit to one once more with 39 seconds left on a pair of Pipkins free throws and then came close to getting the stop on the other end. Instead, Laurent stepped up a second late and was called for a blocking foul, Justin Bassey made two free throws and effectively sealed the game with nine seconds left.
“We guarded,” Pipkins said. “It’s not rocket science. They went up (10), we sat down and actually guarded and we came back in the game. When we actually play defense up to our potential, we can be special, but when we don’t, teams like that without their two best players are going to beat you.”