AMHERST — UMass coach Derek Kellogg said he’s considered the making the move on a few occasions this season when his second team outplayed his starters in practice.
On Sunday he pulled the trigger, going with a completely new starting lineup against the Explorers.
The move paid off, as the combination of Zach Lewis, C.J. Anderson, Ty Flowers, Brison Gresham and Malik Hines gave UMass a spark that carried over to its 84-71 win.
“The guys have really competed in practice. That’s why I started the red team,” Kellogg said. “They beat the black team in practice. So we’ll continue to do that.”
It was the first career start for both Hines and Flowers. Every scholarship player except freshman Chris Baldwin, who’d been practicing with the starters this week, has started at least once.
It wasn’t simply a cosmetic move. Kellogg inserted Baldwin for Hines 2 minutes, 51 seconds into the game when Hines collected his second foul. But he didn’t go to any of Thursday’s starters until Rashaan Holloway and DeJon Jarreau checked in 8:13 into the game.
Jarreau, who had 20 points off the bench, thought everyone benefited.
“It was a good thing that he did that. They do beat us in practice every day,” he said. “It’s a big confidence builder for those guys and for us coming off the bench. We have to step up more.”
With Kellogg subbing off of his second team lineup, it created some unusual minutes distribution. Luwane Pipkins, who is second on the team in minutes played just six, while leading scorer Donte Clark had just one point in 17 minutes.
Jarreau expected practice competition to increase even further.
LEWIS ALL-BIG 5? – Zach Lewis likes playing Philadelphia teams. His 37 points gave him 90 in five games against teams from the City of Brotherly Love, an average of 18.0 points per game, almost 10 points more than his 8.1 scoring average.
His total was the most scored by an Atlantic 10 player this season.
Lewis, who started his career with 717 points in two years at Canisius, is now knocking on the door of 1,000. Sunday’s total gave him 982 with two regular season games and at least one Atlantic 10 Tournament game remaining.
STANDINGS – The win left the Minutemen alone in 12th place, a game behind Saint Louis (5-11) and one ahead of both Duquesne and Saint Joseph’s (both 3-13). UMass would have to win both games and Saint Louis would have to lose both for the Minutemen to finish 11th because the Billikens hold all-tie breakers.
UMass hosts Richmond, Wednesday and is at St. Bonaventure on Saturday.
SLU hosts La Salle Wednesday and is at Richmond Wednesday. St. Joe’s hosts Rhode Island, Wednesday while Duquesne is at George Mason. The Dukes host the Hawks on Saturday.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage