When Massachusetts men’s basketball forward Seth Berger walked into his first career post-game press conference, he didn’t know how to react.
He blankly stared down at the table trying to grasp and sort out what had just happened in the Minutemen’s 77-68 overtime win against Manhattan on Tuesday morning.
It wasn’t until head coach Derek Kellogg spoke that Berger knew he could breathe a sigh of relief after potentially costing the game for UMass.
“Isn’t it great we have Seth Berger sitting up here with us?” Kellogg said as he looked over with a smile.
Following a rim violation on a free throw from Manhattan guard Tyler Wilson with two seconds remaining, all Berger had to do was make a clean inbounds pass to secure the win for the Minutemen, as they led 61-59.
However, Berger’s pass was out of reach for Minutemen guard Trey Davis, who deflected the ball out of bounds with .6 seconds on the clock.
After the referees reviewed the play and added an extra .2 seconds on the clock, Jaspers coach Steve Masiello drew up a perfect inbounds play to which Emmy Andujar (21 points, 10 rebounds) placed a perfect alley-oop pass to Rich Williams, who connected with the dunk, sending the teams to overtime tied at 61.
“Initially I was going to lob it down to Cady (Lalanne) so he could just get a hand on it and let the clock run out,” Berger said. “I was a little hesitant because I didn’t know what was going to happen and I saw Trey real quick. He might have gotten held but that was my fault.”
On the previous possession leading 60-58 was five seconds remaining, Berger – who was playing power forward after Maxie Esho fouled out with 4:45 remaining –forced Andujar to take a fadeaway jump shot along the baseline. After Cady Lalanne grabbed the rebound and converted both of his free throws, Davis fouled Wilson with two seconds remaining to prevent a game-tying 3-pointer.
But the Jaspers received a second wind.
“We knew coming off (the court) that it sucked and we were going to have to win this the hard way,” Berger said. “I knew the game wasn’t over…I knew there was five more minutes left and I just had to make the next play.”
The Minutemen made those five minutes count.
UMass outscored Manhattan 16-7 in the overtime period, led by Derrick Gordon and Lalanne. Gordon opened the scoring with two free throws, then connected with Lalanne on an impressive alley-oop pass to make it 65-63 UMass.
Berger followed that possession with his first two points of the game, following a Lalanne miss with a put-back layup of his own to make it 67-63.
“I thought he won us the game with his toughness on defense,” Kellogg said of Berger.
Lalanne finished with his third consecutive double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Despite shooting just two-for-nine from the floor, Gordon finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists to which Kellogg described as something he’d like to see form Gordon every game.
UMass (3-0) struggled with the Jaspers 1-3-1, attacking zone defense throughout many stretches of the game, especially in the first half. The Minutemen shot just 11-for-26 in the first half and made just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc. Esho opened up the game with six straight points, however finished with just 12 in 26 minutes played.
The two teams entered halftime tied at 28 after UMass went on a 6-0 run courtesy of a pair of baskets from Lalanne and a coast-to-cost dunk from Jabarie Hinds after he stole a Manhattan pass.
After the game, Kellogg praised his team’s ability to bounce back from a potentially demoralizing play to end regulation.
“A lot of teams could have folded because of the way it went to overtime, but that dunk was sick. For us to come out of that unscathed was huge,” Kellogg said.
UMass will enjoy a three-day break before it plays Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Mohegan Sun.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
