With 16 minutes to play, the crowd, stats and momentum all would’ve told you that the Massachusetts men’s basketball team was losing by 15 points at minimum.
Rhode Island had such good shooting that it felt like the team wouldn’t miss again. UMass (9-12, 4-4 Atlantic 10), meanwhile, struggled to generate its own open looks. Plays were stalling, and the ball kept getting stuck in the hands of Minutemen ballhandlers, which led to turnovers and heavily contested shots.
The game looked to be over, and for most Division I basketball teams, the overwhelming momentum probably would’ve sealed things.
But it’s not very often that a team headed by Frank Martin quits, and so where others might wilt, UMass fought back. Its comeback effort was not successful as the Rams (15-6, 4-5 A-10) held on to win 88-82, but the Minutemen outscored their opponents by 15 in the final 16 minutes to make a game of things late.
“That seemed like one of those old-school [Rhode Island]-UMass basketball games I used to watch on TV,” Martin said. “[After being down 21], we recentered ourselves and played better offensively and allowed our defense to set.”
With under three minutes to play, UMass had multiple chances to get even closer than the final margin of six. With 2:40 left, a missed David Green shot sent the Minutemen on the run, and the ball quickly got to Rahsool Diggins for an open three that missed. UMass kept fighting on both ends though, and its two subsequent offensive possessions resulted in four points. It was now a two-point game.
Needing a basket, Rhode Island went to its star guard Sebastian Thomas, who drove below the elbow and lunged into Jayden Ndjigue to draw a foul. The senior made both of his free throws, and two missed Minutemen looks later, the Rams closed things out at the line.
Much of UMass’ comeback came off the same playstyle the team has utilized all season. Martin’s squad attacked the glass off misses, which led to 10 second-half offensive rebounds. Threes still weren’t falling, and nobody expected them to with Rhode Island boasting the nation’s No. 2 three-point defense, but players like Diggins and Hankins-Sanford found success within the arc.
Diggins specifically spearheaded the Minutemen’s offense, and the senior finished with a game-high 27 points. With only two threes, the performance wasn’t as loud as the Philadelphia native is typically used to, but baskets came nonetheless off midrange jumpers and tough takes to the rim. Diggins has now scored in double figures over the past 10 games, and the guard’s scoring average has risen to 16.8, good for sixth in the conference.
For Archie Miller’s Rams squad, their win came off the legs of a 15-minute stretch of play that spanned across both halves. Between the 11-minute mark of the first half and the 16-minute mark of the second half, Rhode Island made 17 of 21 field goal attempts, an absurd 81 percent hit rate. In that time, what was once a six-point deficit for Miller’s team had turned into a 21-point lead that was just too large for UMass to overcome.
“In that segment of the game, we started playing hero basketball,” Martin said. “Instead of trying to do things through our structure, we had guys try to go do their own thing.”
Like Diggins, the Rams had their own guard leading offense in Sebastian Thomas, and he dazzled in the opening twenty minutes. The Albany transfer boasts one of the quickest first steps in the A-10, and he used it to blow by Diggins and Jaylen Curry in the halfcourt. When play was more free-flowing in transition, Thomas took advantage and nailed a couple threes. Altogether, the junior finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on 6-of-11 shooting.
Elsewhere for Rhode Island, Thomas was helped by guard Jaden House and forward David Green when his play took a nosedive in the second half. House made a difference at the rim, driving into traffic to either convert layups or draw fouls. Green’s impact spread across multiple levels of the court, as the senior scored two threes, two free throws and two layups post-halftime. The duo finished with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
Past Diggins, the Minutemen had three other players score in double figures. Guard Jaylen Curry had a strong day behind the arc, making three threes as part of his 15 points. The frontcourt duo of Hankins-Sanford and Daniel Rivera combined for 25 points and 12 rebounds, as the pair impacted paint play on both ends.
With the result, UMass’ A-10 win streak has been snapped at three games. The Minutemen will look to start a new stretch of good play on Saturday, Feb. 1 when they take on Duquesne. That game will tip off at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.
Dean Wendel can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @DeanWende1.