Despite a late comeback attempt, a cold shooting performance from the Massachusetts basketball team made all the difference, as UMass (2-2, 1-0 Atlantic 10) fell to Bryant 93-88.
The Bulldogs (7-2, 3-1 Northeast Conference) were on fire from the field and beyond the arc all afternoon. Bryant’s fast-paced offense earned themselves open shots all over the court, en route to a 42.9 percent clip from beyond the 3-point arc and 58.2 percent overall.
“We started the game off slow, we allowed them to get into a rhythm and it showed,” said senior wingman Carl Pierre. “They were hitting shots, they were confident out there, they were making the right plays. It just comes down to us having a higher level of effort.”
In contrast, the Minutemen shot just 26.5 percent beyond the 3-point arc and 39.1 percent overall. A trio of TJ Weeks, Javohn Garcia and Dibaji Walker shot just 1-for-16 from behind the arc, highlighting the 3-point issues for UMass.
“The only advice I can give TJ is to keep shooting,” Pierre said of Weeks’ 1-for-9 night on threes. “We all know how great of a shooter he is and its going to fall eventually, and when it falls its going to fall in a big way.”
Prior to Monday’s game, UMass head coach Matt McCall preached that the Minutemen would need to ignore the different defensive sets that the Bulldogs would throw at them and play their own offensive game.
That was not the case on Monday however, as Bryant’s zone variations stagnated the Minutemen offense at times, forcing them to settle for 3-pointer after 3-pointer.
“We were 9-of-34 from the 3-point line,” said McCall. “If we’re going to bomb up that many shots, we need to find other guys to put the ball into the basket and we didn’t have that. We felt like if we could get two or three guys going against their zone from behind the 3-point line, we could have some success offensively. We scored enough points to win, we gave up way too many.”
The scoring issues for UMass didn’t stop at the 3-point line either. Reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Tre Mitchell, who dominated his way to 37 points in the Minutemen’s most recent win over La Salle, couldn’t find a rhythm, taking only nine shots and converting four.
The only two Minutemen to shoot above 50 percent were Ronnie DeGray (4-of-6) and Cairo McCrory (2-of-4), who each only played 15 minutes in the loss.
“Once we did get the ball inside, [Bryant forward Hall Elisias] did an unbelievable job protecting the rim with five blocks and made some terrific defensive plays at the basket,” McCall said. “We talked about going right through his chest and finishing, and we allowed him to have a huge impact on the game defensively.”
The sole shooting highlight for UMass came via Pierre, who buried four of his nine 3-point attempts. He also drew five fouls and made all seven of his free throw attempts, finishing with 23 points.
UMass was helped in its comeback effort by Bryant’s 22 turnovers that allowed the Minutemen to score 23 points. The Minutemen also hit 25 of their 29 free throws.
“I think [the turnovers] is what kept us in the game,” said McCall. “We were terrific from the foul line, I felt like we should have gotten to the foul line more. We should have put more pressure on the paint off the bounce.
“Some of the threes we took coming down in transition when a guy is closing out on us, we should be able to rip the ball right to the basket and go in there and finish,” continued McCall. “I can remember four or five times we bombed threes when we could have gotten fouled or gotten layups. I’m fine with taking threes, I want to give our guys confidence, but we also have to understand when we’re not making them or understand who is making them and find that guy.”
On the other side of the ball, the up-tempo offense of Bryant often broke UMass’ press, giving the Bulldog offense easy looks. Within the first three minutes, the Minutemen had to stop pressing because of a lack of defensive effort, per McCall.
Bryant point guard Michael Green III torched the Minutemen defense for 33 points on 12-of-16 from the field, including 4-of-7 on 3-pointers. Peter Kiss supplemented Green III in the scoring column with an additional 21 points on 58.3 percent from the field. Four Bryant players finished in double figures.
“This is the second guard that has just picked us apart. Tyson Walker and now Michael Green,” McCall said. “We are going to need collectively our entire team, not just our point guards guarding him but our pick and roll coverage, getting the ball out of his hands, being good with our rotations.”
“We let him get into a rhythm, get into a groove, get confident,” added Pierre on Green III. “If you let guys do that at this level, they’re going to torch you and that’s what happened.”
The Minutemen will look to rebound against George Mason on Dec. 30 after the holiday break.
Dan McGee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TheDanMcGee.
