Through its first four games of the 2001-2002 season, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team had constantly found a way to make big baskets late in ball games in order to pull out the victory. However, its luck ran out last night, as the Minutemen lost for the first time in this young season, falling 67-56 to Holy Cross at the Mullins Center.
The Crusaders (3-3) used an 18-6 run over an 11-minute stretch in the second half to overcome a two-point deficit and turn it into a 10-point lead with under four minutes to go. During that stretch, UMass (4-1) made just two field goals and committed seven fouls while Holy Cross began to get hot from the floor. The Crusaders made 62 percent of their field goals in the second half, including three-of-four from behind the arc. This was the first time in the Lappas Era that UMass had allowed an opponent to shoot better than 36.2 percent.
“We let them shoot that,” UMass Head Coach Steve Lappas said of Holy Cross’ 72.7 three-point percentage for the game. “That’s great shooting, that’s poor defense – it’s both.”
The turning point of the game came during that stretch when Shannon Crooks and Raheim Lamb were called for questionable offensive fouls on consecutive trips down the floor with the Crusaders clinging to a narrow 51-50 lead. Lamb had buckets that would have given UMass the lead waved off on each trip as a result of the charges and Holy Cross made UMass pay, scoring the game’s next nine points to put it out of reach at 60-50 with 3:51 to play.
Despite trailing 36-32 at halftime, the Crusaders felt good about the fact that they were hanging around with the Minutemen. Freshman Michael Smiley came off the bench to spark the Crusaders by scoring nine points in the opening 20 minutes on three-of-three shooting, with each basket coming from three-point range.
“We thought we were in a good position but we knew we couldn’t take it for granted and we couldn’t be complacent,” Holy Cross’ Tim Szatko, who had 12 points and nine boards, said. “We knew we had to keep playing our game, keep executing and stick to our game plan.”
At the other end of the floor, Holy Cross Head Coach Ralph Willard made defensive adjustments in order to limit the effectiveness of UMass’ Micah Brand. Brand came out of the gates red-hot by scoring the Maroon and White’s first nine points in the opening six minutes, but managed just one point the rest of the half.
“Our game plan was to double team him [Brand] right away, on the pass, and we didn’t do that early on in the game,” Willard said. “He really hurt us early and then we just told our guys, kept reiterating, that they had to go on the pass and be there when he caught the basketball, so he didn’t have time to get a shot off.”
One of the few bright spots for the Minutemen on the evening was the play of sophomore point guard Anthony Anderson. Anderson returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench Saturday against N.C. State, and responded with a career-high 13 points as well handing out seven assists, which also marked a career-high.
“Yes, he played well,” Lappas said of his point guard. “I think we’re going to watch that tape tomorrow and show him four or five instances where he could have done something, like everybody else.”
The goal for the Minutemen will now be to put this loss behind them and shift their focus toward the Saturday night encounter at Boston College.
“I’m anxious to see how they react on Thursday [at practice,] I’m not even waiting to see how they react on Saturday,” Lappas said. “I’m anxious to see how I react on Thursday.”
