PITTSBURGH — With 3 seconds remaining in the first half, UMass had an opportunity to make a dent in a game that already was slipping away. But Luwane Pipkins’ inbounds pass ended up in the hands of Duquesne guard Mike Lewis II, who tossed up a prayer with one hand from the half-court line.
He banked it in. The play summed up the game for the Minutemen — when they contested the perimeter, Duquesne drove to the rim. When UMass closed off lanes, the Dukes nailed open 3-point attempts.
And when Lewis II decided he wanted to hit a 3-pointer, he hit one.
UMass couldn’t overcome a dominant performance by Lewis II, who finished with 31 points on 8 of 14 shooting, including 6 of 7 from behind the arc. The Minutemen fell to Duquesne, 96-66, Wednesday to drop into a three-team tie for last place in the Atlantic 10.
“I wouldn’t say it was a very good performance by us by any stretch,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said. “I thought we hung around for a while early but we missed layups and easy baskets and it was just a culmination of a lot of really bad stuff on our part.”
UMass (13-13 overall, 3-10 Atlantic 10) trailed by 17 at halftime, but the deficit grew to as many as 42 in the second half before the Minutemen closed the game on a small run. Duquesne (10-16, 3-10) shot 50 percent from the floor and drained 14 of 26 3-point attempts. The Minutemen shot 39 percent overall and made 7 of 23 attempts from downtown.
Pipkins led the Minutemen with 16 points, and DeJon Jarreau added 10 and a team-high four assists. Isiaha Mike scored 23 for the Dukes and made all five of his 3-point attempts.
“Their 3-point shooting was kind of the one thing that concerned me, probably the most important thing, and we didn’t do a good job at all at guarding their ball-screen offense,” Kellogg said.
Duquesne took advantage of UMass’ early struggles to build an 8-0 lead two minutes into the game. However, the Minutemen responded with an 11-2 run. A timely cut by junior guard C.J. Anderson led to an easy dunk, which gave UMass a 11-10 lead.
It didn’t last long. UMass turned the ball over six times during the following six-minute stretch, and the extra possessions helped Duquesne build the lead back to double digits, 27-17, with 9:13 to go in the first.
“I felt that we turned the ball over way too many times in the first half, just some of the most careless plays you could possibly make in transition, in the half court missing layups, it was just a culmination of a lot of things,” Kellogg said.
Though both teams shot 50 percent in the first half, the Dukes had 12 more shot attempts — 36 to 24 — thanks in part to the difference in turnovers. Duquesne committed just six, compared to 12 for UMass.
Lewis II’s half-court shot capped a 21-10 Duquesne run to close the first half. The run continued well into the second.
“He didn’t miss,” Pipkins said. “He wasn’t tough (to guard), he just didn’t miss his shots. Ran off a lot of screens, got his open looks. He made them.”
Lewis II nailed his fifth 3 of the game six minutes into the second half, expanding the Dukes’ lead to 30. The Minutemen looked deflated, hitting just 31.6 percent of their shots in the second half.
UMass outscored the Dukes 16-4 in the final 5:45 to trim back the 42-point deficit.
Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage