Brian Tedder, Collegian Staff

It would have been an energetic rebound attempt earlier in the game, but for the Massachusetts men’s basketball team and senior forward Gary Forbes, it was all that was needed. Forbes fell to the floor with the ball in what looked like equal parts foul and exhaustion.

The sequence was the captain’s final contribution to a 78-76 win over Rhode Island last night at the Mullins Center. Forbes finished with a game-high 26 points and 13 rebounds in 38 minutes of basketball.

The victory evens the Minutemen’s conference record and places the team back into Atlantic 10 contention. UMass (15-7, 4-4 A-10) travels to Philadelphia to face Temple Sunday and will reprise its match against Rhode Island (19-4, 5-3 A-10) in two weeks.

“We’ve got eight games left and we’re trying to do some special things with this program,” Forbes said. “We just wanted to please the fans and get a big win for this team.”

UMass coach Travis Ford believes his players understood the significance of the game coming in having lost three of their last four.

“The challenge of this team is to get the kids to play this hard every night,” Ford said. “I can’t say we played the best game tonight as far as execution, but the energy, the sense of urgency and the understanding of what they had to do was at the highest level we’ve had.”

In recent losses to Saint Louis and Xavier, the Minutemen put themselves in large holes where late-comeback attempts failed. Against Rhode Island, UMass kept control, but the outcome of the game was not certain until the final buzzer.

In the middle of the second half, it seemed like the Minutemen were about to put themselves in one of those holes.

URI forward Joe Mbang collected an easy offensive rebound and laid the ball into the hoop, putting Rhode Island within one. Then, while trying to keep pace with his teammates, Milligan rushed a cross-court inbounds attempt in the direction of Chris Lowe on the right side. Guard Lamonte Ulmer stole the ball and earned two free throws, putting the Rams a 55-54 lead.

However, URI only held that lead for eight seconds – its only advantage of the game.

The Minutemen showed their resilience and quickly regained the lead, much to the pleasure of the 6,782 in attendance.

“I think a couple of times in the last few games we’ve been down at that point in the game,” senior forward Etienne Brower said. “When we’re down by one or it’s tied, it’s not a big deal to us since we know we’re going to get on a run. We have that fire to come back all the time.”

The team executed a 17-7 run through the 15-minute mark of the half and played its best stretch of basketball. Forbes took control of the game on the offensive end with nine points during those six minutes with four rebounds.

Even Rhode Island coach Jim Baron entreated his players to emulate the fifth-year senior’s play.

“He’s very aggressive and athletic on the wing,” Baron said. “He was taking it to the hole very strongly. I was telling our guys that we want them to do that.”

Rhode Island’s intended foil for Forbes, senior forward Will Daniels, failed to keep the 6-foot-7 swing man in check, and also struggled on offense during the first 15 minutes. However, the forward made his presence known in the paint with 14 rebounds and scored seven points over the last three minutes.

The victory also proved that the Minutemen could overcome a poor 3-point shooting performance and defeat a good basketball team in the process. A player like Brower, who missed all four of his 3-pointers, contributed a UMass season-high 17 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.

In the first half, the Minutemen jumped out to an early lead and hardly looked back. UMass built a nine-point advantage by the 12-minute mark, but let URI come back to within one point during a four minute UMass scoring drought.

Despite early foul trouble from its centers, the Minutemen kept URI from dominating the paint in the first 20 minutes. When the Rams penetrated into the frontcourt from the perimeter, UMass’ best defense was to put the Rams on the line. URI made only one field goal in the first nine minutes, but kept the game close with strong free throw shooting.

Michael King can be reached at [email protected].