The Minutemen fell to George Washington on Jan. 19.
AMHERST — University of Massachusetts forward Terrell Vinson says everything went wrong.
His coach Derek Kellogg won’t go quite that far in describing George Washington’s 79-76 defeat of the Minutemen on Jan. 19 at Mullins Center, but he was definitely willing to acknowledge that his team made its fair share of mistakes.
“I thought they were able to exploit some things that day,” Kellogg said of the Colonials. “They offensive rebounded, they did score against our press some, and they didn’t let our pressure bother them.”
UMass will get its chance at redemption when they face George Washington in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship at 9 p.m. Thursday at Barclays Center.
George Washington, which finished the season third in the Atlantic 10 in rebounding margin, grabbed 13 offensive boards in the contest. Vinson’s childhood teammate Isaiah Armwood tied for the team high with seven rebounds that day.
The two have already begun talking about Thursday’s matchup, but Vinson said since he only played 17 minutes in the first meeting because of foul trouble, he feels like there is much to be decided in this friendly rivalry.
“That’s how I found out we were playing GW. I didn’t even know. He was the first person to tell me,” Vinson said. “I don’t look at it as he got the better of me last time. … I played like 15 minutes. I got the better of the sideline that game.”
While losing the battle on the glass didn’t help, it was an 8-0 George Washington run to start the second half that put UMass in a 15-point hole it couldn’t dig itself out of despite its best efforts in the final ten minutes (UMass got within three).
“We turned it on too late. Didn’t pay attention to the scouting report,” Vinson said. “Everything that could have gone wrong for you to lose a game, that’s what went wrong.”
Point guard Chaz Williams said that anytime a chance a team has to redeem a home loss — on Marcus Camby Day no less — is a good one.
“Once a team beats you, especially in your place, it hurts,” Williams said. “It’s something you want to get back, but you can’t get it back until it happens, so you wait until the next time comes around. This is one of those times.”
The Colonials point guard Joe McDonald had what coach Mike Longergan called his best game of the season — a 16-point, ten-assist performance that was the 6-foot-1 freshman’s only career double-double to date.
Both Vinson and point guard Chaz Williams said they didn’t realize how well McDonald was playing until well after the game.
Kellogg was quick to give McDonald credit for the good performance.
“He kind of played beyond his years and actually played a little better than I had seen him on video,” Kellogg said.
Asked if the whole Colonials team over performed that day, Kellogg said he wasn’t sure whether to blame his own team or credit George Washington.
“Maybe it’s how they played in why we didn’t play so well that day or maybe we just didn’t have a good day. I don’t know. We’ll find out on Thursday if it was a combination of both, one or the other, if styles of play just matched up good for them that day.