Central Florida forward Nick Banyard might be the one getting all of the attention after his game-winning 3 to ice the Massachusetts men’s basketball team Saturday, but it was a 6-foot 9 freshman on the Minutemen who stole the show Saturday afternoon at Mullins Center with his prowess behind the arc.
Although UMass (5-2) shot just 10-for-38 from 3-point range, forward Ty Flowers was strong from outside, shooting 6-for-10 behind the arc. The Waterbury, Connecticut native led the Minutemen with 20 points and was strong on the defensive end as well, leading the team with nine rebounds.
UMass coach Derek Kellogg was impressed with the freshman’s effort Saturday.
“It’s like a lot of guys, his attitude has been really good. And I think attitude goes into to how you play,” Kellogg said. “Just having a good attitude and then when you get nine rebounds and you’re on the front of the press and play good, hard defense, you stop worrying about making shots. I thought he did an excellent job of that.”
Fellow freshman Luwane Pipkins had 16 points of his own, but shot just 7-for-22 from the field on the day.
“Shoot ‘til I hit, shoot ‘til I miss. I shot 2-for-12 (from 3-point range) which is terrible,” Pipkins said about his mindset during his shooting slump. “I’m a shooter, so I’m going to shoot the ball, no matter how many shots I take. DK told me that was too many shots, so I guess I have to learn from that, but at the end of the day we lost.”
While Pipkins offense wasn’t up to par, his defensive effort continues to be a highlight for the Minutemen. The guard had seven steals on the day and added six rebounds.
Jarreau returns
Last week, guard DeJon Jarreau was ruled out 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in his foot, so one can imagine the shock of the Mullins Center crowd when the freshman was in uniform dressed and checked in to the game with 13:39 left in the first half.
Jarreau was quiet in his return only taking four shots in 13 minutes of play, knocking down one of them.
According to Kellogg, UMass got some positive news about Jarreau’s prognosis last night.
“He went to the doctors yesterday to kind of get an MRI to look at it, and actually, I’m not sure if it’s something that was there when he was born or that came on, but it actually was not fractured and so in retrospect it was really inflamed along with his blisters/callus,” Kellogg said.
“It’s something that I don’t know specifically. But I think that it is just something that is there on different people, they may have it. It really has nothing to do with the stress reaction or stress fracture.”
Kellogg added: “He did a slight workout last night just to see if he could go, then I was told he could play somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, and then kind of slowly work his way back into it so he doesn’t reinjure anything, or get that callus or blister any bigger.”
Kellogg doesn’t believe the injury with restrict him as the season progresses.
“If he can get back in shape, he’ll probably be playing a little bit more.”
Jarreau’s teammates were happy to have him back.
“We told him to just play your game,” Pipkins said. “The first half came, I told him you back now. Just play your game like you’ve been playing it.”
The Minutemen will be back in action Thursday when they take on Pacific at Mullins Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
Adam Aucoin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @aaucoin34.
