AMHERST — Rashaan Holloway took a peek at the score sheet in front of him and a shocked expression momentarily glistened on his face.
The fifth-year senior was amazed to see that he took 17 shots Wednesday, the most he’s taken in a UMass uniform, but it was hard to blame the Minutemen for continuing to feed him. Holloway made it look easy as he scored on his first two shots of the game, a prelude to the career offensive night that was about to unfold in his final game at the Mullins Center.
The 6-foot-11 center powered the Minutemen to an 87-79 win over Richmond with a career-best 28 points on 12 of 17 shooting while also adding 12 rebounds. But Holloway admitted he didn’t know how efficient his night had been until glancing at the score sheet in front of him.
“Sometimes when I get into the game, I don’t realize I touched the ball that many times or I scored as many points as I did,” Holloway said. “It just happens through the flow of the offense, so once I score I have to get back on (defense). There’s no time to think about it or how I got that bucket, I just got to keep working to get new ones. To see I took 17 shots, it was surprising to me.”
There was never any secret that UMass (11-19, 4-13 Atlantic 10) was going to try to get Holloway involved early and often against Richmond. The Spiders (12-18, 6-11) are one of the better matchups for the big man with their 2-3 matchup zone defense anchored by 6-foot-10 forward Grant Golden.
The Minutemen took advantage of the situation and found ways to rotate the ball into Holloway in the post early and often. He scored 16 points in the first half and forced Richmond to adjust its defense to slow him. It worked early in the second half when he committed his only turnover of the game, but he added an efficient 12 points after the break as UMass continued to find ways to pass him the ball.
“We felt like going into the game against the matchup zone the ball had to get to him,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “In the second half, they did a good job trying to double him and he turned it over, but he was posting up in the lane. I didn’t want to just hoist 3s against the matchup (zone), that ball needed to get to the paint and our guys did a good job at that.”
Richmond’s adjustments against Holloway eventually opened up the long-range shots and the Minutemen used those outside shots to extend their lead. UMass made 5 of 9 from behind the arc in the second half, paced by redshirt junior Jonathan Laurent, who made all three of his 3-point attempts in the half.
While the Spiders focused their attention on Holloway, Laurent torched them for 15 second-half points to finish with 20 for the game. During one stretch in the middle of the half, Laurent went on his own personal 7-0 run to extend the UMass’ advantage to eight. Richmond was within a basket for just 24 seconds of the final 14:05.
“When (Holloway’s) playing like that, he’s the best big in the country, you’ve got to focus on him,” Laurent said. “They were starting to double team and bad rotations, late rotations gave me my chance to get some open shots and some layups.”
Laurent’s second-half explosion was part of a well-balanced effort from UMass over the final 20 minutes. The Minutemen had assists on 14 of their 19 baskets in the second half, led by eight from junior guard Luwane Pipkins, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury. His unselfish play overshadowed his news drop pregame when he posted a picture of his No. 2 UMass jersey on Snapchat with the caption: “Been through a lot of ups and down with you my love let’s take this last ride… last home game in a umass (jersey).” It was the first time he has publicly said anything about the long-held belief that he would graduate in May and transfer to a new school for his final year of eligibility.
Yet the news didn’t damper the Minutemen’s spirits as they looked determined to finish the home portion of their schedule with a win. For the first time in a long time, the players looked to be enjoying themselves on the court and it came across in their effort. UMass held a 47-27 advantage in rebounds, brutalizing Richmond with 19 offensive rebounds that led to 29 second-chance points.
It was arguably UMass’ most complete game of the conference season, which Holloway attributed to the attitude the Minutemen took into the game.
“We as a team, we haven’t really been having fun lately,” Holloway said. “(Wednesday), we had fun and we played like we enjoyed the game and we played hard for each other.”