After a loss to Loyola Chicago to close the regular season, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team finds itself as the No. 11 seed in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament. As one of the bottom six seeds in the conference, the Minutemen play in the pillow fight against No. 14 seed La Salle.
“We’ve been talking about the A-10 tournament this whole year,” Rahsool Diggins said. “We never really worried about the regular season besides [getting] the double bye. Once we couldn’t get that, it was just let’s get to the tournament and try to stack games and win.”
UMass (12-19, 7-9 A-10) faced the Explorers (13-18, 5-13 A-10) twice in the regular season, beating them by a significant margin both times. The Minutemen first beat La Salle 82-60 on Jan. 19 and again on Feb. 9 by a score of 78-55. These 22-point and 23-point score differentials were both UMass’s largest margins of victory and La Salle’s largest margins of loss in conference play.
Despite the major deficit La Salle ended the game in, the second matchup was congested heading into halftime. The Minutemen led narrowly, 35-31, needing someone to step up offensively and widen the gap before the Explorers got hot. Diggins took on this challenge, scoring 19 points in the final 20 minutes to top off a 34-point day in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Corey McKeithan scored 17 points, leading the Explorers in this loss. The senior guard kept his team in contention for the game longer than they could hang in during their first matchup a month prior.
In that matchup, the Minutemen were led to victory by elite guard play from Jaylen Curry. The sophomore posted 22 points and seven assists on an efficient 9-of-14 from the field. In terms of impact outside of scoring, Jayden Ndjigue shined in this game as he nabbed a career-high 13 rebounds and five blocks.
Deuce Jones led the way for the Explorers with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists. Daeshon Shephard followed closely behind with 12 points and eight boards, giving his best effort even when it seemed futile.
McKeithan and Jones have been the battery of the La Salle offense, being the top two leading scorers and facilitators for the Explorers throughout the season. This duo ended the regular season on a positive note, beating St. Joseph’s while combining for 49 points en route to an 81-74 win.
La Salle, even though its record might not show it, competes hard in every game. The Explorers managed to steal wins away from the Hawks, St. Bonaventure, Davidson, George Washington, Rhode Island and Temple, all teams that UMass lost to at least once throughout the season.
The Minutemen ended their season with back-to-back losses after a significant change to their starting lineup. Junior forward Daniel Rivera missed the final three games of the regular season, leaving a significant hole at the power forward for UMass.
“Our half-court offense basically revolved around Curry and Rivera making decisions with the basketball,” head coach Frank Martin said. “It’s always been my half-court offense, always. Different techniques for different players, but I run a lot of our halfcourt stuff through our power forward.”
With Rivera out of the lineup, Daniel Hankins-Sanford has stepped up for UMass, posting career-high scoring numbers in each of the final three games of the regular season. Though these efforts haven’t led to wins, it’s still a significant source of offense that could aid the Minutemen. Rivera’s status for the tournament is still unknown, meaning Hankins-Sanford could be leaned on again as a scoring option.
UMass could come into this game with more confidence than most, seeing as it has beaten the Explorers twice before. Something the Minutemen haven’t seen before is McKeithan and Jones having a good game together, which has been potent against other squads throughout the season.
UMass takes on La Salle in the opening round of the A-10 tournament on Wednesday, March 12, at 4:30 p.m. This game will be available to watch on USA Network.
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
