Four days after its biggest win of the season, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team learned the hard way just how grueling the Atlantic 10 can be.
The Minutemen (16-6, 5-3 A-10) squandered opportunity after opportunity on Wednesday night, and lost their grip on first place in the conference, losing to last place Rhode Island (5-18, 2-6 A-10) on the road in overtime, 81-78.
Following a pair of free throws made by Chaz Williams that closed the deficit to 79-78 with 10 seconds remaining in the extra session, UMass got a golden opportunity to escape with a victory.
Raphiael Putney stole an in-bounds pass at midcourt from Nikola Malesevic and handed it off to Williams, who drove the lane into a crowd of Rams defenders and turned the ball over with four seconds remaining.
Malesevic made two free throws on the other end to extend the lead to three, and Freddie Riley’s 3-point heave at the buzzer fell short as the Rams survived a heart-stopping thriller.
“It’s exactly what I wanted to have happen, a drive to the lane, try to make contact to get to the free throw line,” said UMass coach Derek Kellogg in a postgame radio interview. “Chaz did a good job of that, and unfortunately we didn’t get the call.”
It might not have even gotten to that point if the Minutemen had made free throws. For the night, UMass went just 15-for-25 from the stripe, and couldn’t overcome tough calls, the Rams’ 48-35 rebounding advantage – 19 of which came on the offensive glass – or capitalize on the 21 turnovers it forced.
“We didn’t get a few [calls] in that stretch run there that I thought could of went either way, so it was one of those ones where you’re on the road in a tough environment and you have to go make plays,” said Kellogg. “You can’t wait for the refs to make calls, and I thought at times we did that tonight.”
A back-and-forth, physical first half resulted in a 36-32 lead for URI at the break. The Rams extended their lead following the half, but the Minutemen went on a 14-2 tear to take the lead at 51-46 with just over 11 minutes to play in regulation.
URI hung around though, never going down by more than five, and two big 3-pointers consecutively made by T.J. Buchanan and Malesevic put the Rams on top with just over two minutes to go.
But UMass fought back. A layup by Williams with 49 seconds left gave the Minutemen a two-point lead, but Orion Outerbridge converted a jumper on the next possession for the Rams, and Jesse Morgan air-balled a 3-pointer as time expired, which sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, URI came out firing, making its first two field goals to go up four, and made its free throws to hold off any UMass charge and ultimately gain the victory.
“They had a couple guys that hadn’t made shots all year that made 3s and we were playing off them, namely the kid Buchanan who hit a huge one,” said Kellogg. “But really, the game came down to defensive rebounding. When we did that, we were in good shape and when we didn’t do that, we kind of let them take it to us.
“You can’t get beat on the boards like that and expect to come away with the victory, especially in this conference,” he continued. “Rhody’s a lot better team than their record indicates. I thought they played fantastic.”
Putney scored 18 points while Sean Carter added 16 for UMass, who fell to 1-3 in its last four road contests. Williams put in 12, but also committed nine costly turnovers.
The Minutemen will get back on the court on Saturday night when it travels to George Washington.
Stephen Hewitt can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Hewitt.
