Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

All Good things must come to an end

Yesterday’s game against Dayton University meant a lot to the Massachusetts men’s basketball team.

Not only were the Minutemen riding a six game winning streak, but they were also attempting to jump above the .500 mark for the first time since the opening game of the year. It could even be safe to say that UMass was playing as well as it ever had in the five years head coach James ‘Bruiser’ Flint had been at the helm in Amherst, and his team knew that it had to continue playing well if it had any chance of playing in the NCAA tournament this March.

Unfortunately for the Maroon and White, it will now have to be close to flawless down the stretch, after Dayton crushed Flint’s squad, 89-76 at the Blackburn Court in UD Arena. With the loss, Massachusetts’ fell to 10-11 (8-2 Atlantic 10) while the Fliers improved to 14-9 (5-5 A-10).

‘We didn’t come out and play like we had been playing the last month or so,’ Flint said. ‘They beat us up and down the floor.’

Bright spots were few and far between for UMass. Micah Brand played excellent inside on the offensive end, totaling a career-high 23 points and keeping his team close in the first half, but it would not be enough. Monty Mack also had 23 points for the Maroon and White, but he needed to hoist up 25 shots in order to do so. Still, it was yet another 20-point game for the sharpshooter, which is something he has been able to accomplish in 11 of his team’s last 12 contests.

Mack was also able to total his 2,000th career point when he hit a free throw late in the second half, and despite his atrocious night from the field (7-for-25, 3-for-15 in the first half), Flint still had nothing but praise for his senior leader.

‘I am proud of him,’ Flint said. ‘He is one of the best players in the history of the school and one of the best players in the history of the Atlantic 10.’

Yesterday’s relatively high scoring contest differed sharply from the first meeting between the two teams earlier in the year, in which Dayton was dominated on the inside on its way to a 62-57 defeat. This time the Fliers controlled the inside, out rebounding UMass 34-25, and scoring 26 points in the paint to the Maroon and White’s 10. In the last meeting between the two A-10 rivals, the main reason the Minutemen won was because they were scoring once they got the ball inside, but yesterday, Brand was the only inside presence among the Massachusetts big men, as Kitwana Rhymer, Jackie Rogers and Eric Williams could only combine for 12 points.

Another reason that Dayton pulled out the win was because they had a balanced scoring attack that could strike from long range or from the low blocks. Yuanta Holland led the way with 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting, and at times he could not be stopped down low. Tony Stanley also had another excellent game, totaling 17 points, and Nate Green and Keith Waleskowski chipped in by netting 16 points apiece.

At the beginning of the game, neither team could score, as the first 3 1/2 minutes were played without a point being scored, but eventually both teams started hitting their respective grooves. Two Brand free throws capped an 8-0 run that gave the Minutemen an early five-point advantage, but soon after, Stanley was able to knot the score at 10 with a long three ball.

When Mack drilled a three from the top of the key it gave his team a 20-15 lead, but from that point on, Dayton would control the contest, ending the half on a 28-11 run. Things would fail to get any better at the beginning of the second frame, as a Ramod Marshall jump hook extended the Flier lead to 50-31.

UMass would then run off nine straight points on only three possessions, courtesy of a Rhymer three-point play and two long range bombs from Mack, but that would be as close as the Minutemen would get, as Rhymer was quickly forced to the bench with his fourth foul.

‘When we got to within 10, Kit got called for an offensive foul,’ Flint said. ‘They came down, hit a three, and put it back up to 13.’

From that point on, the Maroon and White would fail to make a serious run, and it seemed clear that it would drop its first game since its January 13 defeat at the hands of St. Bonaventure.

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