AMHERST — Last week, it was UMass trying to make a furious late comeback and coming up a bit short.
The shoe was on the other foot Wednesday, and the Minutemen didn’t handle the situation well while protecting a lead. UMass led Yale by seven with three minutes left in regulation at the Mullins Center then went cold at the wrong time at both ends of the floor.
The Minutemen missed their last four shots of the second half, settling for poor shots on three of those four possessions. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs were able to make their final shots count as they found the openings in the UMass defense to tie the game. They even had a chance to win the game on the final play, but couldn’t convert on their two chances at the rim before the buzzer sounded.
Instead, it took another five minutes of Yale’s experienced poise under pressure to shine through and lead to an 83-80 win over UMass, a sixth straight setback for the Minutemen.
“We got a little rattled when we had that lead and it just dwindled and dwindled and dwindled,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “We’re lucky we didn’t get beat in regulation because they got an offensive rebound there and could have gotten a putback. I don’t think it was fatigue, we were kind of just searching for answers.”
After asserting control of the game with a brisk first-half rally, UMass maintained that momentum for most of the second half even as its lead fluctuated. The Minutemen (5-6) led by 10 then were tied three minutes later, but they never squandered the lead, only rebuilt it with hot shooting from junior Carl Pierre and interior dominance from freshman Tre Mitchell. It lasted until there was 3 minutes, 3 seconds left in the game when Mitchell made the final of his four free throws in a span of two minutes to push the lead to 75-68.
In the final three minutes, the Minutemen looked like they were trying to milk as much clock as possible, and it resulted in a string of terrible shots. The only good look in the stretch was a transition 3-pointer from Pierre that cruelly rimmed out, a similar shot to the one he made earlier in the season against Northeastern. After that shot didn’t fall, UMass’ final two shots of regulation were a Sean East floater in traffic and an airball 3 from Keon Clergeot at the end of the shot clock in a tied game with 20 seconds left.
“I don’t think they didn’t really do anything different (on defense), we just took too long to get into offense,” Pierre said. “It just wasn’t as crisp as it was early in the game in terms of ball movement and player movement.”
A big reason the Minutemen weren’t able to execute well in the final three minutes of regulation and the entire five-minute overtime period was how Yale (9-3) was defending Mitchell and Pierre. UMass’ main twosome became the focal points of the offense and the success UMass had was a result of the ball finding its way into their hands. But the Minutemen were unable to free Pierre for a shot in their half-court sets and Mitchell never was able to receive an entry feed in a good position.
The result was a team that made just one of its final 10 shots until Pierre hit his eighth 3-pointer of the game in the final moments. The junior finished with 26 points in the game.
“They did a good job taking Tre out there, especially as we’re trying to go to him in overtime by being physical with him on the block,” McCall said. “Then they were gluing to Carl and they weren’t going to give him any looks, and a lot of the offense we were running, we were running through those two guys to either get shots or post-ups.”
Mitchell was a key lynchpin for the UMass offense early as Yale elected to give the freshman some space to operate with in the post. Although most of the Minutemen’s recent opponents decided to double team Mitchell for 40 minutes, the Bulldogs instead kept just a single man on Mitchell most of the game. There were times when Yale did send two or more players at Mitchell, but for the most part, it left Mitchell to his own devices.
That suited Mitchell, who scored a season-best 24 points and also grabbed nine rebounds while dishing out five assists for UMass.
“Since the very first possession, I thought their bigs were playing very soft, so as soon as that happened, a switch turned on,” Mitchell said. “If they’re going to play me soft then I’m just going to do whatever I want really and create whatever I need to.”