UMass men’s basketball: Junjie Wang drops 28 points, Minutemen come back to beat UML, 72-62

AMHERST — Junjie Wang caught the ball on the wing right in front of the UMass men’s basketball team’s bench with one minute to go during Wednesday’s game against UMass Lowell.

In that moment, all he heard was his teammates yelling to shoot the ball.

As Wang knocked the three down to put the Minutemen up seven over their in-state rival, he lingered as the bench got to their feet.

“That was a great moment,” Wang said. “That gives me more confidence to shoot the ball. and help me make the shot.”

Down by 14 in the first half, UMass slowly worked its way back into the game. Wang’s three proved to be the final punch as the Minutemen won 72-62 in their home opener against the River Hawks. The senior transfer from San Francisco set a career-high with 28 points on the night.

“Really good win for our guys,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. “We knew were going to deal with some athleticism and physicality.”

While Wang sat in the spotlight, UMass’ second leader scoring, Jordan Clayton, quickly turned his attention to getting on defense before the ball hit the floor.

“I was worried about getting the next stop,” Clayton said. “A minute is a lot of time left in a basketball game, so we had to just get back and get the next stop.”

Clayton scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half. He also grabbed five rebounds and tallied three assists. Like Wang, Clayton is learning his new role of becoming a top scoring option after serving as a role player at Northwestern.

“They’re both trying to understand how to be (the offensive leaders) for us,” Martin said. “There will be moments and games where they don’t engage aggressively as they need to. They’ve been doing it for the first time. Both want that responsibility and both embrace it.”

The River Hawks put the Minutemen’s defense to the test at the beginning of the game. Lowell jumped ahead 22-13 thank to a 12-0 run and shooting 5-of-9 from three.

After the media timeout at 11:25, UMass’ defense began to pick up. Lowell shot 2-for-8 from 3-point land for the rest of the half and 38% from the field for the entire frame. Martin saw the team’s energy and attention to detail pick up for the rest of the game.

“Our unwillingness to get beat off the dribble,” Martin said. “When your guards are willing defenders, it creates a presence behind them. Guys can be aggressive behind them, and we protected the rim better.”

Clayton and Danny Carbuccia each had two steals on defense. Dwayne Wimbley Jr. blocked two shots and led the team with 10 rebounds.

Wang and Abdullah Ahmed each had nine boards as Amherst out-rebounded Lowell, 55-35.

Wang scored seven points in the final four minutes to bring Amherst within 37-31 at halftime.

“I thought the first half, offensively, we played a little sloppy,” Martin said. “They’re an aggressive defensive team. When you get sloppy against aggressive teams you’re asking for problems. I liked our mindset. We just got to convert.”

The defense continued to stifle the River Hawks in the second half. Lowell shot just 26.% from the field in the second half.

Bigs Dimitri Clerc and Cheick Sylla provided a combined 23 minutes in the second half. Sylla scored eight points in a span of six minutes. His first bucket gave tied the game at 42-42, and his final put the team ahead 51-50.

Meanwhile, Clerc stepped in and handled Lowell’s pick-and-roll offense.

“That’s where Dimitri can really help us,” Martin said. “He is really good defensively in ball-screen coverage. They other guys are trying to figure it out.”

On offense, Clerc followed Sylla with a putback off an offensive rebound to make the score 53-50 and a few minutes later threw down a dunk for his two buckets on the night.

The Minutemen shot 50% from the field in the second half and finished 42.4% for the game. A 6-for-23 game from behind the arc was made up by a 38-20 points in the paint advantage. Wang and Clayton combined for all the team’s made threes.

UMass improves to 2-1 on the season. It continues its four-game homestand next week when the Bryant Bulldogs come to Mullins Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 17.