The Massachusetts men’s basketball team struggled against Davidson in the 77-68 conference loss. The Wildcats (15-9, 5-6 Atlantic-10) put their best foot forward and beat the Minutemen (11-14, 6-6 A-10) by scoring 44 points in the paint and outrebounding UMass by nine.
“We didn’t have the ‘pop’ that you need to win in this league,” Minutemen head coach Frank Martin said. “Disappointed, obviously, by the loss, frustrated that we can’t take care of home court.”
After losing the first half 37-29, UMass came out hot in hopes for a comeback. Jayden Ndjigue drained a 3-pointer for the first field goal of the second half. Shortly after, Daniel Rivera picked Zach Laput’s pocket and took advantage by getting a dunk during the fastbreak opportunity. Ndjigue immediately followed the steal and dunk with one of his own, capping a 7-0 run while forcing a third Davidson turnover within the first two minutes. That cut the Wildcats lead to just two. The Minutemen got within one but never took the lead in the second half.
The A-10’s leading scorer Reed Bailey was the driving force for Davidson after starting the game missing his first five shots. The Wildcats caught fire towards the end of the first half by going on two separate 6-0 runs with Bailey scoring 11 of his 13 first half points in the last six minutes.
The Massachusetts native led the game with 21 points while also securing his second double-double of the season with 10 boards.
“What we’re seeing from [Bailey] night in and night out is pretty consistent,” Davidson head coach Matt McKillop said, “You’re surprised by some of those shots that he makes, but at the same time, it’s not the first time he’s done that tonight.”
“The game plan was just to play how we normally play,” Daniel Hankins-Sanford said. “Try to keep [Bailey’s] catches out further and just be physical with him. I feel like he just got hot and started playing how he knows he can play.”
With under 10 minutes left in the game, Laput, a transfer from Bentley, and Hunter Adam hit back-to-back 3-pointers which extended the Wildcats lead to 10. Davidson’s shooters stepped up when they were needed most, hitting five of the team’s seven 3-pointers in the second half.
With 26 points in the paint during a dominant first half, Davidson was able to take advantage of UMass’ defense focusing on Bailey and the paint offense which resulted in finding creative ways to get its shooters open.
“He made some incredible passes out of the post,” McKillop said. “A lot of [the 3-pointers] were passes out of the post from [Bailey], I think we got one of them off an offensive rebound. We wanted to emphasize screening more and oftentimes it wasn’t the screen that led to the shot, it was the screen that led to somebody helping and then the guy setting the screen getting the shot. ”
The UMass backcourt was off during the in-conference matchup as Rahsool Diggins and Jaylen Curry combined for 9-of-35 shooting, including Diggins going 1-of-8 from deep. Both guards couldn’t find the bottom of the basket, regardless of the shot being an open three or a layup.
Despite the poor shooting performance, they both were two of the four Minutemen that reached double digits with Ndjigue and Rivera scoring 10 and 12 points respectively. Ndjigue was the only starter with a positive plus/minus while making a season-high two 3-pointers. The sophomore also tied the team-high with five assists and grabbed six rebounds.
“[Ndjigue]’s awesome man… When I’m trying to build a program that’s based on work ethic, enthusiasm, toughness, all the things that we’re trying to build our program with here, he represents all that,” Martin said.
UMass falls to an even 6-6 record in conference play and now sits at seventh in the A-10 standings.
The Minutemen will continue their two-game homestand and look to bounce back on Saturday, Feb. 15 as they will face another A-10 foe with St. Bonaventure coming to Amherst. Tipoff is at noon and televised on NESN.
Maxwell Solomon can be reach at [email protected] and followed on X @Maxwell697909.
