AMHERST – The desperation the UMass men’s basketball team has been seeking all season emerged, briefly, Sunday against George Mason.
Patriots guard D’Shawn Schwartz lost the ball on the Minutemen’s end, and players from both teams flew to the floor. The ball popped into UMass guard Javohn Garcia’s hands, and he drilled a 3 from the left wing to tie the game with 5 minutes, 7 seconds to halftime.
It was the type of play, aggressive and sacrificial, that the Minutemen haven’t made consistently in the games they’ve lost. But it was just a flash at the Mullins Center, as George Mason scored 10 of the game’s next 12 points to establish a double-digit lead that ultimately proved the separator. The Patriots won 72-62 after the teams put up equal 35-point second halves.
UMass (9-11, 2-6 Atlantic 10) shot just 31.7 percent form the field and 32.1 percent from the 3-point line.
“That’s a problem. We’ve got to be able to finish in and around the basket,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “I didn’t think, in the second half, we settled nearly as much in the first. I thought the ball wasn’t just moving from side to side.”
George Mason (11-7, 4-1) controlled the paint, outscoring UMass 30-16, and limited the Minutemen to seven fast break points.
“We didn’t play with good enough pace on offense. I thought there was times we were just jogging and trotting when we need to be sprinting,” McCall said. “All we talked about was being aggressive on both ends of the floor, and we didn’t have that.”
The Minutemen scored the first five points of the second half on a T.J. Weeks Jr. 3-pointer and a Greg Jones layup to cut it to 37-32 just 1:43 in.
George Mason ripped off a 7-0 run to again push the lead to double-digits, punctuated by a Xavier Johnson to Malik Henry alley oop for a 44-32 lead.
UMass never cut the deficit to single digits again. It reached 20 on a DeVon Cooper 3 with 12:54 left 57-37. The Patriots stretched their advantage out to as many as 22 with 5:40 left on a Henry 3.
“I thought we got a lot of good looks, and we missed them. They hit their shots,” said UMass guard Rich Kelly, who scored 13 points. “Those 3s add up real quick.”
George Mason hit 51 percent of its shots and drilled 43.5 percent of its 3s. Patriots leading scorer Josh Oduro only played 21 minutes and scored just six points due to foul trouble, but Schwartz added 15, Gaines scored 14 and Cooper had 12 to help make up the lost production.
“We talked about trying to get to the bench, and I thought we did a decent job of that. We did a great job on Oduro, but Cooper, Gaines and Schwartz are really good players,” McCall said.
The Patriots scored the game’s first seven points before the Minutemen ripped off nine in a row to take a 9-7 lead on two Jones free throws. Jones, a Central Connecticut State transfer, was making his first start at UMass. He finished with nine points and five rebounds with a steal.
“Greg’s effort was through the roof keeping basketballs alive,” McCall said. “We thought it was a better matchup to put him on Schwartz.”
The Minutemen led by as many as four as late as 11:45 left in the first half after Kelly hit a 3 to make it 19-15. At that point George Mason shifted its pick and roll defense to switch screens rather than try to stick with their matchups.
“So many good shooters on the court, we end up tagging long close outs after long close outs. It’s not ideal when you have a team that shoots the ball so well,” George Mason coach Kim English said.
The Minutemen recognized that change and tried to exploit mismatches, but the Patriots were sound enough in their defensive principles to minimize cracks.
“They’re gonna pretty much continue to make you make the correct play. And if you make the right play over and over, you’re going to get open shots, which I thought we got,” Kelly said. “There wasn’t one time where I caught them slipping and got a wide open layup. That help side was there every single time.”
The Minutemen ended the game on a 9-0 run to trim the gap. Garcia (five assists) finished with 13 points to tie for the team lead, and Trent Buttrick also reached double figures with 10. They also grabbed six rebounds each.
UMass was without point guard Noah Fernandes for the second consecutive game in concussion protocol. The Minutemen don’t have a midweek game this week and will return to the court Saturday at Rhode Island (2 p.m. ESPN-Plus).