The Minutemen used stingy defense and production from a variety of sources to pull away midway through the first half and cruise to victory.
Boston College's Dennis Clifford (24) defends against Massachusetts' Chaz Williams as Boston College's Gabe Moton (1) looks on during the first half of the Minutemen's beatdown of BC Monday in Chestnut Hill.By KEVIN RYDER
CHESTNUT HILL – An all-around team effort on both ends of the floor propelled the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team to a dominating 82-46 victory over host Boston College Monday in front of 4,162 at Conte Forum.
The Minutemen (4-0) defeated the Eagles (1-2) for the first time since an 83-80 road victory in 2007, bringing the Commonwealth Classic trophy back to Amherst.
“I was a little nervous at the start; you could see (BC) has worked on some things the last couple of days,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said. “But our guys held true, continued to keep the tempo and really got after them defensively.”
Kellogg was referring to the 16-10 lead to which BC jumped out six minutes into the game, a product of errant shooting by the Minutemen more than anything else. UMass missed on its first seven attempts from behind the arc before Jesse Morgan (11 points) connected with 10:33 left to cut the deficit to 20-19.
“At times, when we were just firing 3s without passing the ball at the beginning of the game, I was a little skeptical (of the offense),” Kellogg said. “When it kicked in and we made some shots and really kept the pressure on them – what we’ve worked on and talked about – the game plan came through pretty strong.”
Starting with the Morgan trey, the Minutemen ended the half on a 17-6 run that helped turn what had been an 8-point deficit into a 37-26 advantage at the break. The run also coincided with UMass heating up from behind the arc, as it connected on five of its final nine 3-point attempts of the half.
The defensive intensity also picked up, as the young Eagles were forced into nine turnovers in the half, which led to nine points for the Minutemen. BC, which started the game making its first three shots from behind the arc, finished the half making just one of its final eight.
Minutemen point guard Chaz Williams was one of the keys, picking up two of his team’s four steals in the half as UMass shut down the Eagles, limiting them to one field goal over the final 5:50. For the half, BC shot just 30 percent (7 for 23) while also missing five free throws.
The Eagles tried to stay in the game in the second half, but they could never get the deficit to single digits. The last good opportunity came midway through the second half when it appeared UMass was ready to blow the game open after it took a 19-point lead on consecutive hoops from Cady Lalanne (11 points) and Sampson Carter.
Boston College was able to slice that lead back to 54-40 after a three-point play from Eddie Odio and a basket from Dennis Clifford with 10:36 remaining. But Clifford missed a free throw after his hoop and UMass quickly responded with a trey from Morgan and consecutive hoops from Freddie Riley to push the advantage back to 20 points with eight minutes left.
Entering the night, Riley had made 2 of 17 three-point attempts and scored just 16 points in the first three games. He made a pair of treys against the Eagles and finished with 14 points.
“It was big for him and for the team,” Kellogg said of Riley’s hoops. “When the lead was kind of dwindling a little bit there, he made five straight points for us that separated the game. It gives you one more weapon that teams have to worry about instead of saying, ‘Just let him shoot.’ When he’s playing confident, it carries over to the other guys on the team.”
The key, besides the solid offensive showing (48 percent shooting, including 55 percent in the second half), was the solid defensive effort put forth by UMass, especially at the end of both halves.
After holding BC to one point over the final 5:30 of the first half, UMass bettered that statistic by allowing just one field goal over the final 10:30 of the game, helping to turn a 14-point advantage into a 36-point blowout.
“When we aren’t hitting, we know we have to defend,” said Williams, who finished with a game-high 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting to go with 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. “That’s our main goal. Most people look at us as a shooting team, but we know we are a defensive team. As long as we can get out, defend and stop the opponent from scoring, then we’ve been doing our job.”
NOTES: UMass won the rebounding battle (46-31), with Raphiael Putney leading the way with 9 boards ... The Minutemen took just seven free throws, making six, compared to 13 of 25 for BC ... After making its first three treys, BC was just 2 for 19 the rest of the way ... The win was the start of a four-game road trip for the Minutemen, who are off to Paradise Island, Bahamas, to participate in the Battle 4 Atlantis, with a game against another ACC team – Florida State – Thursday at 4:30 p.m.