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

Dayton hands UMass worst loss of season, wins by 33

Jeff Bernstein/Collegain

The Massachusetts men’s basketball team may have picked the worst time to have its worst game of the season.

The Minutemen (19-9, 8-6 Atlantic 10) hurt their chances of finishing in the top four in the A-10 with a 76-43 loss to Dayton on Saturday. The loss also all but eliminates the squad from contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Senior Chris Johnson led the attack for the Flyers (18-10, 8-6 A-10) in front of a sellout crowd at UD Arena.

“I thought the atmosphere startled our guys to a certain extent,” said UMass coach Derek Kellogg in an interview with UMass Athletics.

Johnson recorded a double-double, as he scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Kevin Dillard (14 points), Luke Fabrizius (11 points), Devin Oliver (10 points) and Josh Parker (10 points) rounded out the double digit scoring for Dayton.

The Flyers controlled the entire game, but it did not become a blowout until late in the second half.

Dayton opened up a 16-point lead at one point early in the second half, but the Minutemen came storming back, and a Freddie Riley 3-pointer pulled UMass to within six, with 13 minutes, 50 seconds remaining.

From there, everything went south.

For the next 13-plus minutes, UMass was outscored 36-9 by the Flyers. They went 1-for-17 from the field and turned the ball over seven times.

“We cut it one time to six, we were right there, we just weren’t good enough to overcome how they played and our own inability to make plays,” said Kellogg.

In just over 13 minutes, the Flyers had turned a six-point lead into a 33-point lead.

“It wasn’t fun to watch, it wasn’t fun to play and it wasn’t UMass basketball,” said Kellogg.

Dayton controlled the first half as well, which was plagued by poor play from both teams. Neither team shot the ball with much efficiency, but a string of 3-pointers by Fabrizius put the Flyers in front early, and allowed them to coast to a 28-18 first half lead.

“Down 10 at half with the way we played I thought we had a chance to make a run in the second half, but we weren’t really on our game the way we needed to be to win at Dayton,” said Kellogg.

In the end, the Minutemen simply did not shoot well enough to win. They shot just 25 percent from the field, their worst output of the season, 24 percent from 3-point range, and went 13-for-24 from the free throw line.

In addition, they committed 15 turnovers, and were outrebounded by the Flyers 45-36.

“We didn’t play good basketball on both ends of the floor, and at this time of year, that’s pretty much unacceptable,” said Kellogg.

Guards Jesse Morgan and Chaz Williams, who were instrumental in the win against Xavier last Tuesday, struggled mightily. Williams had 11 points, while Morgan scored just two, and they combined to shoot 3-for-21 from the field.

“I’m a little disappointed that some guys didn’t play as well as they had been,” said Kellogg. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error with this team, we don’t have 10, 11, 12 guys, we’re down to a certain number of bodies and we can’t have guys not play well.”

Maxie Esho chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench for UMass.

The loss puts the Minutemen in a tie for sixth place in the conference with Dayton – although the Flyers now own the tiebreaker. The Minutemen sit one game behind both Xavier and St. Bonaventure for third place, and a half game behind St. Joseph’s for fifth. Temple and Saint Louis currently sit atop the A-10 standings.

UMass will have the opportunity to reestablish itself in the race for a top-four seed when it faces the No. 22 Owls on Wednesday in Philadelphia.

“Those guys are resilient and I think they’re going to come back and play,” said Kellogg of his team.

Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Alexander.

View Comments (1)
More to Discover

Comments (1)

All Massachusetts Daily Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • K

    ktabzFeb 27, 2012 at 11:05 am

    first game all year i turned off before the final buzzer.

    Reply