AMHERST — UMass is not going to miss Jack Gibbs when he graduates.
At halftime Saturday it looked like the Davidson senior point guard would take down the Mullins Center single-game record of 35 points by an opposing player. He had 24 of the Wildcats’ 38 points. He’d hit 6 of 8 3-point attempts, including some with two defenders on him. But he cooled off in the second half and finished the 79-74 win with 32 points, six rebounds and six assists.
It was not, however, his best game against UMass. A year ago in North Carolina, Gibbs notched a career-high 43 points on the strength of 15 free throws, to go with eight rebounds and eight assists. The only other player in Wildcat program history to reach 40 points in a game is Steph Curry.
As a sophomore in Davidson’s first year in the Atlantic 10, Gibbs had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists against UMass, giving him an average of 29.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game against the Minutemen.
Gibbs leads the Atlantic 10 with 21.6 points per game.
STANDINGS — UMass, Duquesne and Saint Joseph’s all lost this weekend leaving them in a three-way tie for 12th at 3-11 in conference play. The Dukes and Hawks close the regular season against each other.
The highest the Minutemen can finish is eighth and to do that, they’d need to win their remaining four game and finish with the same record as at least two other teams and have tiebreakers go in their favor.
A loss to George Washington (6-8) on Thursday would all but assure UMass of finishing in the league’s bottom four, which would put it in one of the two first-round games of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on March 8 in Pittsburgh.
CHARTS — With three steals Saturday, freshman Luwane Pipkins now has 58 this season, which ties him with Shannon Crooks’ 1999-2000 campaign for the most swipes in a single year. If he maintains his current average of 2.1 per game, he’s on pace to get at least 10 more this season which would give him 68, which would be fourth best in program history.
TURNOVERS — UMass finished with 19 turnovers, the 13th time this season the Minutemen have had at least 15 giveaways. They are 5-8 in those games. UMass averages 15.03 turnovers per game, which is the worst in the Atlantic 10.
Before Sunday’s games, that average put the Minutemen at No. 319 in the nation out of 351 teams.
Freshman DeJon Jarreau, who had eight turnovers in the game, recognized his need to improve.
“I still have to value the ball more. I have to get better at that,” he said.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage