AMHERST — With the best team in the Atlantic 10 rolling into the Mullins Center on Wednesday night, the struggling UMass men’s basketball team put its recent poor performances in the rearview and played its best game of the season when it needed it most.

The Minutemen, coming in losers of their last three games, fought toe-to-toe with conference powerhouse Dayton and earned a 76-72 win at the Mullins Center – their first in league play.

Head coach Frank Martin said on Monday that his team has played well for large portions of games this winter, but when a small bump in the road presents itself – a scoring drought or quick run from the opposing team, for example – they have trouble overcoming it. Well, that roadblock never presented itself on Wednesday, thanks in large part to UMass’ relentless effort on both ends of the floor from the opening tip to the final whistle.

“I’m just really happy for our guys, because we’ve kept saying after every game that we’re right there, we’re not that far off,” Martin said. “I thought today’s the best, in a hard game, the best we’ve done all year.”

“[We] stepped up and saved the season, in my eyes,” Rahsool Diggins added. “This gives us a little bit of confidence going into this road game we’ve got coming up against George Mason.”

Marqui Worthy had his coming out party, erupting for a career-high 18 points including several clutch buckets down the stretch. As UMass hung on desperately to a 72-71 lead with under a minute to go, the shot clock ticked down under 10 seconds. The ball swung to Worthy, he put his head down and attacked. Worthy ducked into a Dayton defender to create just enough space for a shot. The floater swished home just before the shot-clock buzzer to put UMass ahead by three.

The officials stopped play to review if Worthy got it off in time, and when they did Worthy let out a huge scream and bumped chests with Diggins as the two celebrated the would-be dagger.

“That was great,” Worthy said with a wide smile postgame. “[Diggins] is my man. As soon as I made it, he was right there with me. I was already lit, so that just made it 10 times better having him there, for sure.”

Flyers forward Nate Santos knocked down one free throw on the ensuing possession, and Daniel Rivera was fouled on the inbound with 14 seconds left. He calmly sank both free throws to put the nail in the coffin as UMass went ahead by two possessions. One more stop on the defensive end and a Malek Abdelgowad rebound sealed the deal.

Unlike previous games this season, every loose ball and every hustle play wasn’t made by the opposition. This time the Minutemen were the aggressor, and it paid off for them. UMass out-rebounded Dayton 38-26 (13-7 offensive), had 22 more points in the paint than the Flyers and blocked six shots to Dayton’s two. Jayden Ndjigue grabbed a whopping six offensive boards, and despite only scoring six points in 31 minutes, he had his fingerprints all over the game making intangible plays.

“Jayden played more to the stuff he does to help us win,” Martin said.

Because Worthy and Diggins – who netted 18 points and dished out six assists – were orchestrating UMass’ offense smoothly in the second half, Martin decided to roll with those two for the majority of the night. Jaylen Curry only played nine minutes. The Minutemen recorded 17 assists on 27 made field goals, and they shot 45 percent from the field – which may not be great, but is certainly better than it’s been.

Rivera put up a game-high 23 points, tying his season high. He put his head down and got to the rim at will, creating several quality looks for both himself and his teammates when Dayton collapsed. The Bryant transfer also grabbed a game-high 12 boards, including a key one after Santos  missed a free throw late in the game.

UMass shot 19-for-20 from the free throw line, a season-best 95 percent after struggling there all year long. Everything came together for the Minutemen on Wednesday, and after lacking the toughness that typically comes with a Frank Martin-led team for most of the season, they brought that rugged demeanor to Dayton.

“They all gave us a physicality,” Martin said. “That's how my teams play. For 40 years… that's who I was as a player. I couldn't play the game through grace and athleticism. I had to play it through grit and non-stop, relentless physicality. And my teams have always played that way, and so it was fun to see our guys play that way today.”

Amadou Doumbia also provided UMass some big minutes as Abdelgowad dealt with foul trouble. Martin has emphasized the lack of production from his center spot throughout the year, so he rolled the dice playing the true freshman who hadn’t played more than five minutes all season. It  paid off as Doumbia chipped in five points, two rebounds and made several effort plays that sparked the Minutemen.

“His competitive spirit is something that we lack,” Martin said of Doumbia. “And he gave us that today. Like, he didn't know half the things that he was supposed to do out there, but he was not going to back down from the physicality of the game.”

Dayton shot a poor 38 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc. The Flyers picked up massive non-conference wins over UConn and Marquette and almost beat top-5 Iowa State (89-84) and North Carolina (92-90) earlier this season. But Dayton has now lost two straight Atlantic 10 road games to inferior opponents, and head coach Anthony Grant rightfully isn’t pleased.

“We’re just not playing very well right now as a team, individually or collectively,” Grant said. “We’re not playing to our identity on either side of the ball.”

UMass (6-10, 1-2 A-10) returns to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. when it travels to George Mason.