WORCESTER — In the UMass men’s basketball team’s first three games, its freshmen were a huge reason for both the team’s solid start and the excitement around the program’s future.

But in UMass’ 68-60 win over Holy Cross on Sunday, the Minutemen relied heavily on veterans Donte Clark and Seth Berger to save them from what would have been a bad early season loss.

“It was nice to see a couple of my older guys make plays to win a game,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “Your guys who have been through the battles are supposed to make plays down the stretch. In a tight games, these guys made some big baskets and some nice defensive stops.”

From the moment the preseason started, much of the outside attention on team was on its freshman. The Minutemen were coming off a sub .500 season, and the rookies arriving on campus were part of a high-ranked recruiting class.

In the first game, Luwane Pipkins was terrific, and DeJon Jarreau had been outstanding in the next two, which only turned up the volume on the attention.

But Sunday, the Minutemen were in their fourth game in 10 days playing against a hard-to-simulate defense in a building with little atmosphere, and it was the Clark and Berger who pulled their feet out of the fire. Each delivered his best effort of the young campaign, and their contributions were indispensable.

Clark had 18 points and seven rebounds with 10 of the points and four of the boards coming in the second half.

On Wednesday, Kellogg wondered if Berger would even play this weekend.

He spent most of the opener against UMass-Lowell in foul trouble and missed the loss to Ole Miss with a wrist injury.

But he had 11 of his a season-high 13 points in the second half of the win. He was 6-for-6 from the field.

“I had a chance to get a little rhythm. When you don’t have foul trouble and you’re not hurt, it helps,” Berger said. “In the first half and into the second half, we lacked a lot of energy. Being an older guy, that’s what I bring. I tried to do that to the best of my ability and bring the other guys along with me and change the course.”

DCU CENTER/CENTRUM SUCCESS – The Minutemen improved to 10-1 in the building that’s gone by several names in its 34 years of hosting college basketball.

It was the first Division I basketball game in the venue since 2011.

There was an odd breeze going through it throughout. Both teams were noting the dead spots in the arena’s old floor, and UMass players were concerned that one of the backboards might get pulled down on a dunk, as they were swaying considerably during warm-up dunks.

Five seconds into the game, the lights went out but were quickly restored. It wasn’t an omen of things to come, as neither team shot the lights out, as they combined to go 16-for-53 (30.2 percent) from 3-point range.

There were 3,591 fans in the building, which put a curtain in front of the highest level seating.

MISCELLANEOUS – Freshman Luwane Pipkins, who entered the game leading the nation with 4.7 per game didn’t register a theft in the game.

Clark was whistled for a technical in the second half.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage