The Massachusetts Men’s Basketball team missed their final seven shot attempts as they fell to St. Bonaventure 76-67 on Saturday afternoon.
The Minutemen crawled their way back after being down seven points to the Bonnies. The Bonnies led 55-48 with 11 minutes to go, but the Minutemen launched a 10-3 run to tie the game at 59, thanks to three by forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford.
Momentum was shifted to UMass and the Minutemen thought they had the lead after guard Jaylen Curry’s shot went in. However, that was taken after Curry was called for an offensive foul for kicking his leg out, tripping up a St. Bonaventure defender.
As a result, St. Bonaventure came back with a 6-0 run to give them a six-point lead. Three minutes later the game was tied up again, with the Minutemen responding with a 6-0 run of their own capped by an emphatic dunk by forward Matt Cross.
With 3:32 remaining in the game, poor late-game execution by the Minutemen saw them come off short in another close game. The Bonnies were the more aggressive and hungrier team in the clutch, with four key offensive rebounds that helped them retake the lead. One of them led to an open three by Mika Adams-Woods that gave the Bonnies a five-point lead.
“[I am] disappointed for our guys,” head coach Frank Martin said. “We had an opportunity in a tie game with three minutes to go to create a special moment, and instead we had our hearts broken today.”
“Everyone stood and watched the ball expecting someone else to go get it,” Martin said. “We’ve been a one-man defensive rebounding team all year, since Puerto Rico, and that’s Matt Cross. If Matt doesn’t get those hard rebounds, everyone else watches and that bit us today.”
What hurt UMass was star player Josh Cohen getting into foul trouble. Cohen led the team with 18 points but picked up his third foul early in the second half forcing him to be subbed out. During this time the Bonnies outscored the Minutemen 14-4.
UMass shot poorly as well, shooting 4-12 from the field to start the half without Cohen. Additionally, the Minutemen fell in love with the three-ball in the second half. UMass, not known for their three-point shooting, shot 50% from three in the first half but went cold in the second half only shooting 14%.
Cohen was not the only player in foul trouble, Hankins-Sanford had four fouls, and Cross got into foul trouble in the first half. Cross picked up his second foul with five minutes to go in the first half, which saw him go to the bench for the rest of the half.
It was a game to forget for Cross on Senior Day. The length of the Bonnies limited Cross to shoot 2-8 from the field and forced him into a team-leading four turnovers. Turnovers were a problem in the first half for UMass with St. Bonaventure forcing 10 turnovers from them and scoring 10 points off those turnovers. The Minutemen cleaned it up in the second half, having only four, but giving up 10 turnovers in the first half to the team that scores the most off of them in the A-10 is what kept the Bonnies in the game.
After a big win against VCU on Tuesday night and with the largest crowd attendance at the Mullins Center since 2014, the Minutemen failed to capitalize on their momentum. UMass now sits at 17-10 overall and 8-7 in the A-10. With three games remaining in the season against conference opposition. UMass has to win out and have things go their way if they want to have a double-bye into the tournament and their first top-four finish in the A-10 since 2008.
“I haven’t been here long enough to understand how fans are going to manage this moment,” Martin said. “I get that they’ve been burnt in the past and I get they struggle to trust right now. We got a chance to still do special things. I hope our fans stick with our guys, I know I’m not giving up on them.”
The Minutemen’s next game is on the road against George Washington, whom they beat at home earlier this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
