Massachusetts basketball coach Derek Kellogg probably won’t be dreaming about snowfall and candy canes over the next few days with Christmas quickly approaching.
Instead, he’ll likely lay restless in bed haunted by the memories of missed opportunities and poor execution down the stretch that plagued his team in Tuesday’s 77-71 overtime loss against Brigham Young.
Trailing 69-68 with one-minute, 27 seconds left in overtime, Trey Davis threw up a wild, and deep 3-pointer to try to eliminate the Cougars lead. Corbin Kaufusi slammed in a wide-open dunk off of a perfectly executed pick-and-roll with Frank Bartley IV on the ensuing possession. Following a 30-second timeout on the next possession, Donte Clark forced another bad 3-point attempt fading away, falling out of bounds. Both shots left Kellogg that his team had failed to produce – and finish – a quality attempt in crunch time.
Maxie Esho made the front end of his two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 62 and force the extra session. Davis blocked Chase Fischer on the previous play that lead to the Esho foul shots. Davis also knocked away Jordan Ellis’ desperation, full-court pass at the end of regulation to preserve the tie.
If Clark hadn’t already solidified himself as one of the Minutemen’s most talented freshmen in recent years, his 14-point second-half performance earned him that title after scoring on three consecutive possessions in the second half when the UMass offense was at a standstill facing BYU’s 2-3 zone – a defense that it has struggled with over the past few seasons. Clark’s surge gave the Minutemen a 49-44 lead with 11:56 remaining — their largest lead of the second half.
Anson Winder, whose ability to hit the outside shot gave the UMass guards fits all game long, led the Cougars with 25 points off the bench. Winder hit three 3-pointers and made 8-of-10 foul shots. Esho led the Minutemen with 16 points while Cady Lalanne recorded his seventh double-double of the season (11 points, 10 rebounds).
After BYU opened the game on a 7-2 run, UMass quickly answered with a 14-2 run of their own capped off with back-to-back field goals from Jabarie Hinds. Hinds scored all nine of his points in the first half.
Tyler Haws — the nation’s leading scorer at 23.8 points per game entering Tuesday, finished with just four points on 2-of-9 shooting, after being heavily guarded by Derrick Gordon. Haws was battling an injured ankle all afternoon and scored all of his points in the second half.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
