AMHERST — George Washington proved to be a bad team to lack size and depth against.
UMass’ small roster and small bodies were exposed early, as the Minutemen fell 83-72 on Wednesday at the Mullins Center.
With Malik Hines, UMass’ only available big man, battling foul trouble throughout, the Colonials spent much of the game attacking the middle, and the Minutemen couldn’t do much to slow them down. GW had 44 points in the paint and 21 on second chances, as it had as many offensive boards as UMass did defensive rebounds (17-17). GW dominated the glass, 43-28.
“We just couldn’t find a away to get a rebound,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “We can say it’s our lack of size up front. Rebounding is a want, not a skill. You have to lay wood on people and chase loose balls and take pride in it.”
McCall said he expected more of the same from future opponents unless UMass plays better.
“I think teams are smelling blood,” he said. “They say ‘UMass is down everybody. They have more guys in sweat suits.’ Sixty percent of our scholarship players are not playing right now. Teams are smelling blood. That can either motivate you and drive you of you can go the other way. We didn’t respond the right way.”
Senior C.J. Anderson echoed his coach.
“Guys go down. It’s part of the sport. You still have to come out and play ball,” Anderson said. “We’re small out there, but that’s part of the game. It’s what we’ve got. We’ve got to fight with it.”
Anderson’s career night couldn’t overcome a tough scoring night by Luwane Pipkins and Carl Pierre. Anderson had his first career double-double with 21 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Pipkins had 20 points and shot 7-for-21 from the floor, while Pierre was 1-for-8 (1-for-5 from 3-point range) and had eight points.
With only one healthy big man, UMass came into the game hoping to keep Hines out of foul trouble against GW’s beefier front line. But he picked up whistle No. 1 just 57 seconds into the game pursuing an offensive rebound. No. 2 came with 16:23 left, leaving McCall with two undesirable choices. He could either sit Hines and hope the five-guard lineup could rebound and defend against the bigger Colonials or play Hines and hope he could defend effectively without committing a third foul.
He tried both, even using Randall West, a football player who was added to the roster earlier in the day. Nothing worked effectively. Hines didn’t get his third foul, but George Washington dominated inside. The Colonials turned 11 offensive rebounds into 15 second chance point before intermission. Patrick Steeves did much of the damage with 12 of his 16 points and nine of his 12 rebounds in the first half. Making matters worse for UMass was that Pipkins was 3-for-10 and Pierre was 0-for-4 before intermission.
The Colonials’ lead peaked at 23 four times in the second half. The combination of GW’s slightly waning focus and UMass continuing to attack on offense allowed the Minutemen to cut it to 10 at 77-67, but with less than two minutes left, there’s wasn’t enough time to put a scare into GW.
“I didn’t think we had enough competitive spirit, enough grit, enough toughness to get the job done,” McCall said.
UMass (11-15, 4-9 Atlantic 10) is at Davidson, Saturday at 7 p.m.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage