Playing in front of its home crowd and under the spotlight, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team didn’t show up in any facet of the game, especially on offense.
In a disappointing loss to Dayton in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, UMass had its worst offensive performance of the season, tying a season-low with 50 points. The Minutemen shot just 28.1 percent from the field, 20 percent from the beyond the arc and 42.1 percent from the free throw line.
“To go basically 2-for-[10] from the free throw line in the first half, to go, I don’t know, 1-for-whatever from 3, to miss four or five fast-break layups or wide open layups,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “I’m not sure if the guys are nervous, if Dayton was that good tonight. It was probably a culmination of a lot of things tonight but it was kind of ugly on some different fronts.”
The struggles for the Minutemen began early, as UMass mustered 16 points in the first half. Aside from senior leading-scorer Anthony Gurley, who poured in 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting from the field, no Minutemen player scored more than two points in the first 20 minutes.
Gurley, in his final game wearing a UMass uniform, finished the game with 10 points after sitting for a majority of the second half with what appeared to be a re-aggravated ankle injury.
The lone spark for the offense was guard Freddie Riley, who scored all of his 15 points in the final 20 minutes. In the first half, Riley played a sparing three minutes after not entering the contest until the four minute, 44 second mark.
While the performance for UMass seemed a far cry from its outing against Temple two games earlier, Kellogg attributed the lack of confidence for his team on Tuesday night to the heartbreaking loss to the Owls.
“I think if we win that Temple game, it gives us a huge boost confidence-wise and probably play a little better around Fordham and then, who knows what would have happened tonight,” said Kellogg. “We probably wouldn’t have played Dayton this way.”
Though the Minutemen offense was at its worst on Tuesday night, it wasn’t unprecedented. Against the Flyers in its previous meeting on Jan. 9, UMass shot a lowly 27.3 percent from the field and 2-for-12 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range. Nevertheless, the Minutemen were able to win that contest, 55-50, as Dayton had trouble of its own scoring the ball.
The only other time UMass scored 50 points this season was in a 79-50 loss to Xavier on Jan. 12. That performance was similar to the one exhibited by the Minutemen on Tuesday night, as UMass managed 18 points in the first half against the Musketeers. The difference for the Minutemen in the two games was at the free throw line.
The shooting from the field against Dayton, while low, was relatively plausible, compared to the missed opportunities at the charity stripe. The 42.9 percent shooting from the line in the loss was the second-lowest mark of the season, as the Minutemen converted only 2-for-10 in the first half. The only occasion in which UMass made both of its free throw attempts came with 1:39 remaining in the game as forward Raphiael Putney sunk both of his chances.
After beginning the year 7-0, the Minutemen had struggles on offense down the stretch and didn’t play up to Kellogg’s standards.
“We had some different things transpire throughout the season and we didn’t play exactly the way I wanted to especially kind of the last couple weeks here,” Kellogg said.
Jay Asser can be reached at [email protected].
