The UMass men’s basketball team had four players in double figures for the second consecutive game, as the Minutemen beat Southern Illinois 84-62 on Thursday in the Las Vegas Holiday Invitational.
With the win, UMass advanced to the championship game and will face No. 6 Nevada at 10 p.m. Friday at the Orleans Arena.
Rashaan Holloway led the way with 16 points in 17 minutes. He went 7-for-7 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line with five rebounds and two assists.
“Rashaan Holloway’s presence defensively was his best since I’ve been here,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “He did an unbelievable job of clogging the lane and not getting too extended on his pick and roll coverages.”
Luwane Pipkins added 15 points and six assists, while Carl Pierre scored 14 and Curtis Cobb had 10.
The Minutemen (4-2) jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the game’s first five minutes.
“I thought we had tremendous energy to start the game. Yesterday was one of our best practices of the year,” McCall said. “When you travel that far across the country there’s a level of concern as a coach, would you come into practice complacent? Our guys were fired up from the beginning.”
UMass made 15 3-pointers, hitting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc. Pipkins and Pierre hit four each, while Cobb made three.
“We made a lot of 3s, this team has the capability of doing that,” McCall said. “It started on the defensive end of the floor. We had a focus to get out there and get stops.”
UMass held Southern Illinois to 41.8 percent shooting, 23.5 percent from the 3-point line. The Minutemen forced 18 turnovers and had five blocks. They outrebounded the Salukis 40-30 led by eight from Jonathan Laurent.
“Everything we’ve been working on coming out of the Howard game is starting to translate — defense, rebounding,” McCall said. “Our guys are buying into it.”
Nevada 96, Tulsa 86 — Jordan Caroline had 25 points and 11 rebounds and the No. 6 Wolf Pack won in the third round of the Las Vegas Invitational.
Caleb Martin added 21 points for the Wolf Pack, making all 10 of his free throws. Jazz Johnson had 20 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range.
Sterling Taplin the Golden Hurricane (4-1) with 22 points, and Martins Igbanu added 14.
Nevada finally pulled away with about 10 minutes left in the game, building an 80-62 lead with 9:30 left. Tulsa cut it to 88-79 with 3:48 remaining.
he Wolf Pack’s No. 6 ranking is the highest in school history. Nevada is 29-2 when Caroline has a double-double. This was Nevada’s first neutral-site game, albeit within the state, eight hours south. Besides its annual Mountain West Conference game at UNLV, Nevada is trying to play more neutral-site games in Las Vegas for its fan base in the southern part of the state.
Before Thursday, the Golden Hurricane were off to their best start under coach Frank Haith. In their two previous Invitational games at home, Igbanu averaged 20.5 points.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.