AMHERST — The aftereffects of UMass’ beatdown Saturday at Harvard looked to be in full effect early Wednesday against Yale.
The Bulldogs dissected the Minutemen’s defense for open shots and UMass lacked the energy and aggressiveness it showed prior to the weekend setback. Yale was leading by 12 with five minutes left in the half when suddenly the Minutemen returned to the form that won them five straight games to begin the season. The tempo of the game sped up and UMass’ press became a weapon once again.
With a faster pace fueled by turnovers and quick transition off missed shots, the Minutemen closed the half on a 23-6 spurt to take a five-point lead into intermission.
“We just started playing harder,” coach Matt McCall said. “We started picking up the intensity, started picking up the pressure. Keon (Clergeot had) two charges and the play Tre (Mitchell) made where he dove on the floor for the loose ball were momentum-changing plays for us, those two plays were huge.”
It was like a light switch flipped on for the Minutemen as soon as Clergeot took the first of his two charges. By simply getting barreled over on the fast break, the redshirt junior guard found his teammates’ missing juice. The scores started coming easier for UMass and Yale started to get a little more careless with the ball, and the momentum began to shift fully into the Minutemen’s favor.
Mitchell said the run was like a snowball effect for UMass because every play the team made fueled the next play and the deficit shrank in a hurry.
“We got a couple of easy baskets and then we got a couple of turnovers,” Mitchell said. “From there, everybody just got a lot more aggressive, started pressuring the ball more in the press, speeding them up, then we kept getting everything we wanted on offense.”
Yale shot 15 of 21 as it took its 34-22 lead with five minutes left in the first half. At that point, it seemed like the Bulldogs were going to waltz out of Amherst with a victory because they were able to dictate the pace and find their shooters for open shots as UMass was slow to rotate.
Bulldogs coach James Jones credited UMass for finding ways to impose its tempo on the game for much of the final 25 minutes.
“We had an opportunity to really take control in the first half up 12 and we got going up and down,” Jones said. “They play much better that way, we were not sound, we did not stay within our principles and we allowed them to get back in the game. They did a great job of doing it and they maintained that momentum for most of the second half.”
HOME SWEET HOME — Carl Pierre made 8 of 12 from behind the arc to increase his 3-point shooting percentage at home to 51.2 percent. The junior is only shooting 22.2 percent from 3-point range in games away from the Mullins Center this season.
“Home is home, I take thousands of shots on these rims,” Pierre said.
NO FREE POINTS — Mitchell’s free throw with 5:08 left in the second half to complete a three-point play was the first foul shot for either team in the game. UMass made all four of its free throws – all courtesy of Mitchell – and Yale didn’t attempt a free throw until overtime.
WEEKS OUT — UMass was without freshman guard T.J. Weeks due to an abdominal issue that McCall said is not related to athletics. Weeks was in attendance and at the end of the bench in sweatpants, but McCall did not have a timetable for Weeks’ return because the UMass medical staff is still trying to diagnose what is ailing the shooting guard.
With Weeks out of the lineup, UMass was down to just nine scholarship players on the bench for Wednesday’s game, and played just eight players in the game. The Minutemen are also missing freshman guards John Buggs III (out for the season with a torn ACL) and Kolton Mitchell (week-to-week with wrist injury).
“It’s not something that happened in practice or a game, it’s something in his stomach area that he’s dealing with here,” McCall said. “Our doctors and medical staff are working with him to figure out exactly what’s going on and get him back healthy and get him back out there.”