The Minutemen held the Spiders without a field goal over the final 6:24 Sunday.
AMHERST – For 34 minutes Sunday, it looked like whatever work the University of Massachusetts basketball team had put in on defense in practice this week was going to be in vain.
The Minutemen’s early second-half woes had struck again, and their defense had faltered, a five-point halftime lead over Richmond becoming a seven-point deficit with 6:02 remaining.
But UMass finished on a 14-2 run, locking down on Richmond’s shooters and emerging with a 70-65 win in a sneakily pivotal game in front of 5,467 at the Mullins Center.
“Really that was the first game in a while where we got in our press. It looked like the press was at least able to create some energy for our defense,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “It didn’t turn them over, but it did get them out of kilter, out of sync.”
Things looked bleak for UMass with just over six minutes to play. Cady Lalanne missed the front end of a one-and-one, then Raphiael Putney picked up his fourth foul going for the rebound to put Richmond’s Nelson Alonzo-Ododa on the line at the other end.
Alonzo-Ododa sank both to give Richmond a 63-56 lead – its biggest.
The Spiders then missed their next 10 field-goal attempts, five of which were 3-pointers, while the Minutemen whittled the lead.
Lalanne tied it with the last two of his 11 second-half points with 4:09 to go.
“That’s Cady being Cady. He’s a big kid, he’s a beast, he’s a monster,” point guard Chaz Williams said. “He’s one of the great finishers on the team, so going to him at the end of the game is always going to be in the game plan because you know he can finish. “
Sampson Carter gave UMass the lead on two free throws with 2:11 to play. Richmond then missed three straight 3-pointers before a beautiful pass by Williams set up a backdoor layup for Freddie Riley that gave the Minutemen a four-point advantage with 27 seconds to go.
Kellogg called it one of the biggest baskets of the season.
“When the ball first got inbounded, I looked at Chaz and told him I was going backdoor,” Riley said. “We just communicated at the beginning of the possession and it ended up being a good play.”
Richmond’s Kendall Anthony hit two free throws to get the Spiders back within one possession, but Williams, who finished with a game-high 18 points, sank two with 14 seconds to go before a missed a 3-pointer by Anthony sealed the deal.
While part of the late-game dominance resulted from Richmond (13-8, 3-3 Atlantic 10) just plain missing shots, UMass (13-5, 3-2) did its part on the defensive glass – a place it has struggled at times this season.
“I thought our defensive rebounding was way better,” Kellogg said. “We did a good job of guarding the 3-point line, and that’s important against them. They were 8 for 24, and that’s one of the most important things when you play Richmond.”
UMass overcame poor 3-point shooting (3 for 15) by dominating inside, outscoring the Spiders 38-20 in the paint and going 21 of 27 from the free-throw line.
“I wanted to go inside a bit more,” Kellogg said. “I thought we had some size on them inside. They were using three and four guards; we don’t have three and four guards, so we were playing a bit differently and a little bigger. We threw the ball inside probably as much as I’ve been here as the coach.”
That advantage was particularly evident early, the Minutemen jumping to a 14-6 lead after five minutes behind eight points from Carter, who finished with 10.
“I felt good, especially with my teammates coming back to me a couple times in a row,” Carter said. “I just caught a rhythm early and stayed with it until it died down.”