Giving up a double-digit lead, inconsistent shooting and 17 turnovers can all lead to bad results in Atlantic 10 play. Although each of those things contributed to the Massachusetts men’s basketball team’s 72-64 loss to Richmond, it was the turnover battle that stood out the most among UMass’ (5-10, 0-2 A-10) performance against the Spiders (7-8, 2-0 A-10).
The 17 turnovers tied a season-high for the Minutemen, as their ugly loss to Florida State was the only other time the team had that many cough-ups. Turnovers have been a reoccurring issue thus far in Amherst, as head coach Frank Martin’s team averages about 11 turnovers per game. Saturday’s performance is an outlier on the year, though, and UMass could not overcome that stat to get a victory.
The performance comes just four days after the Minutemen had a season-low four turnovers against Saint Joseph’s. That game was only the fourth time this season where UMass gave up less than 10 turnovers, making it seem like things were trending in the right direction.
Yet, the contest against Richmond turned out to be a very different story. Off of the Minutemen’s 17 turnovers, the Spiders scored 22 points. Richmond also had 10 steals, largely due to its different looks on defense confusing UMass ball handlers. Spiders guard DeLonnie Hunt had five of those steals while Dusan Neskovic had three.
“I thought we made some very poor decisions because of [Richmond’s] switching,” Martin said. “We had players trying to do things that you can’t do against switching defenses, [and] that’s where the 17 turnovers comes from.”
Outside of the defensive plays, some of the Minutemen’s turnovers were self-inflicted wounds as careless ball handling and poorly timed passes contributed to the final total.
Out of the ten players who saw minutes on the court, nine had at least one turnover, with Daniel Rivera being the only one clean in the stat. Rahsool Diggins, who scored 16 points, had a team-high four turnovers.
“I think it was just mental mistakes, it wasn’t nothing [Richmond] did,” Diggins said. “I think as well, me just being careless with the ball, making dumb decisions, played a big part in that.”
UMass had nine turnovers in the first half, with six occurring in the last six minutes before halftime. During that stretch, each of those six turnovers was committed by a different Minuteman.
Those first half turnovers both took away scoring opportunities for the Minutemen and allowed Richmond to erase its deficit. Starting the game down 20-7, the Spiders tied things for the first time with 4:36 left in the first half before entering halftime with a 34-31 lead.
UMass’ mistakes did not end at the break. The Minutemen opened the second half with three more turnovers in the first five minutes, two of which happened within 16 seconds of each other.
“When you’re driving the ball trying to make a play and you see a read and you try to make the pass, sometimes it’s not there,” Martin said. “There’s only one way to learn [which] is by having the courage to go make the play. But when you have bad turnovers, those are lackadaisical, non-competitive, non-playmaking plays.”
Winning or losing the turnover battle has not always determined success for UMass this season, as the team’s won games while having over 10 turnovers. In conference play, however, Saturday’s game showed that limiting turnovers should be a high priority going forward for Minutemen players and staff.
While still searching for its first A-10 win, UMass will hope to keep turnovers under control against a strong Dayton team. The Flyers will travel to the Mullins Center on Wednesday, Jan. 8, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. on Peacock.
Samantha Sands can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @samantha_sands_.