AMHERST – Rahsool Diggins showed a glimpse, rather a full examination of how good he can be on the offensive end of the floor on Monday night.

The UMass junior guard poured in a game-high 22 points to pace the Minutemen in their 102-81 non-conference win over Quinnipiac at the Mullins Center.

Diggins shot 9-for-16 from the field and drilled four three-pointers, capped off by the dagger 3 with just over four minutes remaining in the game to bring an end to his exceptional outing.

“Spacing, I would say,” Diggins said, referring to what has given him and the Minutemen open looks from deep early this season. “Our assistants are big on threes this year, at least for me to try to get up more threes.”

Matt Cross is certainly “the guy” on this UMass team – he’s widely regarded as the best player on the roster. But for the first game and a half, Cross had been limited to only eight total points. He ran into foul trouble in the first half against Quinnipiac and played just four minutes and 17 seconds.

He finally got going in the second half alongside Diggins.

The senior scored 16 of his 19 points to give the Minutemen (2-0) the boost they needed to pull away from the pesky Bobcats. His outburst over the final 20 minutes was a sigh of relief for Cross.

“It felt good to see the ball go in finally, and be out there for a good enough time where I can actually get a rhythm,” Cross said. “It was just good to see all the guys eat today, we put up 100 points. Everyone was doing their thing.”

The Minutemen settled for 19 threes in the first 20 minutes of action. There was a clear effort to minimize the forced shots from behind the arc and instead drive to the basket to create higher quality scoring chances. UMass scored 46 points in the paint, 28 of those coming in the second half.

Despite the pressure to do so with the game’s evolution, UMass head coach Frank Martin isn’t about to abandon the mid-range game and in, and that showed in the latter portion of the contest.

“I was unhappy with our two-point field goal percentage in the paint [last year]. It was bad,” Martin said. “That’s what Josh (Cohen) has done his whole career. And Matt Cross… his whole career he’s been a pick-and-pop four [that] shoots threes. He’s so much more than that. [Scoring inside] have been my conversations with [them].”

Cohen didn’t have the same dominant 22-point, nine-rebound performance as he did last week against Albany. He was held scoreless in the first half and didn’t convert his first field goal until the 15:40 mark of the second. Cohen finished with 11 points, which can mostly be credited to the fact that the Bobcats double teamed him on nearly every paint touch.

The big man was quick to dish it out when the double team came his way. Cohen added five assists to his stat line, finding shooters with a skip pass to the opposite side of the floor and backdoor cutters slashing to the hoop.

“Josh being an older guy, the oldest guy on the team with how long he’s been in college, it just shows that experience of knowing when guys are coming [with the double team],” Cross said. “This is nothing new to him, so we feel like we can rely on him making that pass.”

Marqui Worthy provided a nice spark off the bench for UMass on Monday, scoring 11 points and getting out in transition to create easy baskets. He knew when to push the ball up the  floor with his dribble and with a pass, but he also knew when to slow it down and control the tempo.

Worthy is one of seven freshmen on the roster. It’s evident he’s earned Martin’s trust and carved out a solid role for himself in the early going of the season.

“Marqui was awesome all summer, and all pre-season,” Martin said. “Him and Keon (Thompson) made some great plays against their defense in the first half driving the ball, which is something that we kept telling the guys on the sideline… Credit Marqui. He lets you coach him… The best way I can word Marqui is he’s an aggressive, safe player. That means if he thinks he can go, he’s coming at you. But he’s not just turning the ball over.”

As has been the case for UMass through two games, it once again took care of the basketball. The Minutemen coughed up only seven turnovers. While the veterans and starters are expected to not turn the ball over, it’s a pleasant surprise that the freshmen and players coming off the bench have valued possession as well.

“I’m really proud of our freshmen,” Martin said. “I was worried after Saturday’s practice, because Quinnipiac is old, first of all, and second of all, they’re talented… Our freshmen bailed us out. They made some great plays to give us a lead in the first half, and in the second half I thought we played better – more to the things we’re trying to get done offensively.”

UMass scored 90 points only once all of last season, and it hadn’t eclipsed the century mark in three years until Monday (a 100-66 win over St. Joseph’s in the 2021 Atlantic 10 tournament). With all of the scoring weapons shown early this season, the Minutemen have made it clear they can put up points. Six players tallied double figures.

The most obvious flaw on the floor Monday was the lack of rebounding. Martin’s team was only out-rebounded by one, but it was clear that the most sizable hole in this team is controlling the defensive glass. UMass’ front court consists of Cohen, Hankins-Sanford, and Cross with freshman Mathok Majok still serving a three-game suspension. The Minutemen need to do a better job on the boards moving forward – plain and simple.

“Defensive rebounding is a major problem right now,” Martin said. “It’s not an individual problem, it’s a team problem. We gotta fix it. We addressed it 10 days ago, and we got better, but it slipped again. That’s gonna cost us if we don’t fix that.”

The Minutemen return to action Friday night at 7 p.m. as they welcome Harvard for their third of five consecutive games in Amherst.

Garrett Cote can be reached at gcote@gazettenet.com