A low scoring stretch for C.J. Kelly ended Saturday afternoon in the Massachusetts men’s basketball team’s 80-74 win over La Salle. Kelly finished with a team-high 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field along with eight rebounds.
“I’m a very confident player,” Kelly said when asked if this game gave him confidence. “I guess it helps. Especially having my teammates around me, especially [Greg Jones] was telling ‘shoot the ball.’ I go 0-for-30 he’ll be like ‘Shoot it, just keep shooting.’”
In eight games before Saturday’s game, Kelly averaged 5.5 points with a 25 percent field goal percentage. Before those eight games he averaged 13.9 points on 44 percent shooting from the field.
“[Kelly’s] offense is going to come,” UMass (12-13, 5-8 Atlantic 10) head coach Matt McCall said of Kelly’s scoring struggles. “He’s a terrific offensive player, he’s really really talented. The 18 is the 18, I’m proud of him for that. I’m more proud that he went out and grabbed eight rebounds. He had some big [rebounds] when the game was on the line.”
Rebounding is one of the larger problems for UMass, where it ranks 247th in the nation and 11th in the A-10. Kelly is one of the Minutemen’s top rebounders at the same time of his scoring slump. He averaged 3.7 rebounds in the first 13 games of the year and has kicked that up to 6.2 in the nine most recent games.
“I remember when I was out because I missed a few games because of injury, the coaches kept harping on ‘we don’t rebound enough,’” Kelly said of why he’s rebounded more in the second half of the season. “They challenge me every game ‘C.J. get 10 boards.’ … [Me, T.J. Weeks and Javohn Garcia] as the bigger guards, we try to put emphasis on [rebounding].”
The Minutemen outscored the Explorers (7-17, 2-12 A-10) 34-24 in the paint, eight of which Kelly accounted for, most notably his half-dunk on a La Salle defender, resulting in an and-one.
“It’s funny, I get those opportunities a lot in practice,” Kelly said of the dunk. “…My teammates and my coaches give me a lot for not dunking the ball, because I’m really athletic.”
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💥 @cj_kelly12#Flagship 🚩 pic.twitter.com/lNdsAbWo2b
— UMass Men's Basketball (@UMassMBB) February 19, 2022
Most of the recent guard scoring production has come from Weeks, Fernandes and Rich Kelly. Weeks averaged 17 in the last four before Saturday, he finished with two points on 0-of-4 shooting from the field. Rich Kelly added 17 points Saturday, but Fernandes was struggling from the field again, finishing 3-of-12 from the field with 10 points. The lack of production from Weeks and Fernandes made Kelly’s 18 points far more imperative for this team’s success.
“I thought we did a good job on the guys that were the leading scorers for UMass going into this game,” Explorers head coach Ashley Howard said. “Other guys stepped up for UMass and beat us today, and that’s what makes them a dangerous team.”
McCall went with the lineup of Fernandes, Rich Kelly, Weeks, Garcia and Trent Buttrick in the final minutes of last Saturday’s win over Saint Joseph’s. This Saturday, Garcia and Buttrick were replaced by Kelly and Greg Jones. Buttrick is the leading rebounder for this team, but McCall’s late-game lineup showed his confidence in the ability of Kelly and Weeks to grab rebounds. Both guards corralled 10 in the first meeting with La Salle this season.
“[Kelly and Weeks are] out there just being physical, you go back to the Rhode Island game, those two guys’ physicality for us was outstanding,” McCall said of his trust in Kelly and Weeks in small-ball lineups. “C.J. [Kelly] had some huge rebounds for us, he had a huge block… it’s more of those effort plays that we continue to challenge him to make.”
The next game for the Minutemen is at Dayton, who is winners of four straight and currently sits at third in A-10 standings. The game is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and will stream on ESPN+.
Joey Aliberti can be reached at [email protected] and Followed on Twitter @JosephAliberti1.
