AMHERST — The UMass basketball team lost its first game of conference play in the Mid-American Conference on Saturday, falling 69-59 to Kent State.
After a lackluster first half, the Minutemen battled back to shrink the deficit to just four points with under 2:30 to play in the second half. Back-to-back missed open 3-pointers by K’Jei Parker and Daniel Hankins-Sanford, and a turnover on the following possession deflated the comeback hopes for UMass as the clock ran out.
The Minutemen missed their shots when it mattered most, finishing the game by making just one of their last 12 attempts. Many of the shots were quality looks with open space, but UMass struggled to knock them down.
“I mean, we had good looks in the paint, we were just missing layups and stuff like that, things that we just have to focus on,” Parker said. “[UMass Head coach Frank Martin] was just telling us that we just have to execute. Feels like we got everything we wanted, but we just have to just [focus on] the toughness, that’s all.”
Parker finished the game with just one made field goal, on a day when the top scoring options all struggled for the Minutemen. Leading scorer Marcus Banks Jr. shot 1-of-10, with most of his attempts coming with a heavy contest in his face.
Daniel Hankins-Sanford recorded a double-double against the Golden Flashes with 11 points and 12 rebounds, but shot just 5-of-18 (28 percent) from the field. Kent State played aggressively on defense, making things hard on UMass all game long.
“They’re good, they defend, they’re physical,” Martin said of the Golden Flashes. “And they wouldn’t leave [our main scoring options open]. We tried to run stuff to get them open, and we couldn’t get them open.”
Cleaning up all of the missed shots by the Minutemen was Delrecco Gillespie, who came into Saturday’s matchup leading the nation in rebounds per game with 11.9 for Kent State. The senior outdid his average and then some against UMass, bringing down 20 of his team’s 40 total rebounds.
Gillespie was also the Golden Flashes’ leading scorer with 19.4 points per game entering the matchup, living up to that reputation with 18 points on the day. His combination of size, strength and skill in the paint proved to be too much for the Minutemen’s undersized lineup to handle.
“That was the first time all year [that] we played somebody that plays at the rim offensively,” Martin said. “We haven’t played any post-up guys all year… Me saying that our centers aren’t very good defensively at the rim is not a surprise to anybody. That’s not a mistake [that Kent State] came out there and did that, and that’s how they play.”
Leonardo Bettiol struggled to lock down the paint defensively for UMass, but led the team in scoring with 14 points. Quinn Woidke was the game’s leading scorer, tallying 19 points against the Minutemen for Kent State.
Coming into Saturday on a five-game winning streak, the first experience in MAC conference play caught UMass off guard. With 17 more matchups against what will become familiar opponents, the Minutemen will look to put this one behind them.
“It’s a different ball game,” Parker said of conference play. “It’s our first one, but just from that, we can tell that each team will come out and give us their best, and we just have to come out and give them our best. I mean, it’s still early, our heads are up, and we’re ready for the next one.”
Before fully engulfing itself in MAC play, UMass (8-4, 0-1 MAC) has one more non-conference game on the schedule, taking on UMass Boston in its next matchup at home on Monday, Dec. 22. Tipoff from the Mullins Center is set for noon.
