AMHERST — It was an off-handed comment from Jonathan Laurent in the aftermath of UMass’ first Atlantic 10 win of the season.
The redshirt junior was talking about how the Minutemen put together a fairly complete effort on both sides of the court Sunday against Rhode Island when he paused for a brief second. He glanced down at the stat sheet in front of him before reversing track and saying the team didn’t do a good enough job on defense in the second half, despite holding on for 77-70 win over the Rams.
The second-half defense has been an issue for the Minutemen this month, and it has been the most striking at home. In its four January games at the Mullins Center, UMass is allowing an average of 25 points in the first half, but that number spikes to 43 over the course of the final 20 minutes. It’s a reason why a two-point halftime lead over La Salle on Jan. 5 turned into a nine-point defeat and a two-point deficit against St. Bonaventure ballooned into a 14-point loss.
“We just have to find a way to string together more stops,” McCall said. “Against Rhode Island, four times in the first half, we got three stops in a row, in the second half, we only got that once. Our goal is to have six in a game. Just continuing to harp on the focus level to start second halves of games.”
The problems the Minutemen have encountered in the first half have been dependent on the game. They committed too many fouls early against VCU and made the pace of the game too choppy for them. Their struggles on offense against St. Bonaventure led to a lack of focus on the defensive end that allowed the deficit to grow. And there were breakdowns guarding pick-and-rolls that allowed Rhode Island to shoot nearly 60 percent from the field and stay competitive with UMass, which was shooting 63.6 percent itself.
“We have to approach the second half with the same, if not even more, intensity than we did in the first half,” sophomore Carl Pierre said after Sunday’s win. “We just need to have a mentality of just stepping on team’s throats in the second half on the defensive end and the offensive end, but especially defensively, it’s been a huge emphasis for us. If we approach it with the same level of focus as in the first half, we should be fine.”
The fouls, though, have been an issue McCall has touched on numerous times over the course of the season, especially when they come at untimely moments. Laurent said those fouls early in the half give opponent’s momentum and allows them to settle into an offensive rhythm.
“(We have to) try to limit our fouling and giving them easy points and giving them free shots at the free-throw line,” Laurent said Sunday. “If you give a shooter a couple of free shots at the free-throw line, now the basket opens up also and he makes a couple more 3s or a couple more mid-range shots. We just have to eliminate the easy attempts so we can continue what we do in the first half.”
Rhode Island was only the second team in seven A-10 games to reach 70 points against UMass, which had used strong first halves to keep itself competitive. McCall said the goal was to hold teams to 65 points or fewer, something the Minutemen have accomplished twice already to put them squarely in the middle of the pack in A-10 play.
Now with their first conference win under their belt, the Minutemen (8-12, 1-6 Atlantic 10) will hit the road for a rematch with La Salle (4-14, 2-4 A-10) at 7 p.m. in Philadelphia. These games away from Amherst have been tricky under McCall with UMass posting a 2-16 record in true road games in the past season and a half.
“There’s a different focus level you have to have on the road,” McCall said. “You have to take care of the basketball, you have to take good shots on the road. … We just have to know there’s a different focus level on the road.”