AMHERST — Seth Berger said as bad as UMass felt after Wednesday’s 96-66 loss to Duquesne, the team had to move past it and focus on Saturday’s noon game with Davidson at the Mullins Center.
“We have a quick turnaround. We can’t dwell. Dwelling on that has to be over the night after the game. It happened. It sucked. Now we have to put that behind us and get better,” Berger said prior to Friday’s practice. “We have a game tomorrow. We have to get back on track. We have to focus on our next game and build some momentum going into March.”
UMass coach Derek Kellogg said Thursday’s practice was a rough one by design
“We didn’t touch the basketball much (Thursday),” Kellogg said. “Our ability to run fast and show some toughness will hopefully carry over to practice today and the game tomorrow.”
Kellogg liked the way his team responded in practice.
“We got out of character at times in that game and that can’t happen this late in the year. This’ll be a good test to see how they respond and to see if we can sustain it for a full 40 minutes,” he said. “After the response I got from them yesterday, I’m pretty confident that they’ll at least be ready to play tough.”
Davidson snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday with a win over George Washington. The Wildcats are 13-11 overall and 7-4 in the Atlantic 10.
Davidson boast the league’s most explosive scoring duo. Jack Gibbs leads the Atlantic 10 with 21.2 points per game, while Peyton Aldridge is third with 20.7 points per game. In league games only, they’re flipped with Aldridge leading the A-10 with 20.6 ppg, and Gibbs in third with 19.7.
“They just play so well off of each other,” Kellogg said. “What separates them is their overall intelligence for the game. That’s what makes them really dangerous. They know how to get to the free throw line and get their teammates shots.”
On top of their scoring, Aldridge is sixth in the league averaging 7.5 rebounds per game, while Gibbs in ninth in assists with 4.3 per game.
MORE MILLER? — Sophomore walk-on guard Rayshawn Miller played a career-high seven minutes in Wednesday’s loss and was in the game before it was completely out of reach. Kellogg said the move wasn’t made only in frustration about how his regulars were playing.
“He’s done some really good things in practice. He’s definitely earned the right to play at different times,” Kellogg said. “He was OK. He missed some shots he’d been making in practice.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage