Carl Pierre didn’t flinch.
The UMass men’s basketball team’s senior captain missed a 3-pointer with 10 minutes, 2 seconds left at Rhode Island on Saturday. The Rams pushed the ball up the floor, and Antwan Walker tied the game eight seconds later on the fast break.
Eight and a half minutes earlier, UMass led by eight. Rhode Island was eying past games like Davidson and George Mason, when both erased second-half deficits against the Minutemen.
Not on the captain’s watch. He canned back-to-back 3s over the next two minutes to push UMass’ lead back to eight, and sank a back breaker off an offensive rebound with 2:35 remaining to put the Minutemen up 10.
The Minutemen held Rhode Island without a field goal for the game’s final 5:12 and left the Ryan Center with a 75-63 victory. UMass hadn’t swept the Rams since the 2013-14 season, the last time it reached the NCAA Tournament. It’s the Minutemen’s best start in conference play since 2006-07.
“What a win. A really gutsy performance by our guys,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “We learned a lot from our mistakes and our second-half issues that we had.”
UMass (7-4, 6-2 Atlantic 10) was without leading scorer Tre Mitchell and point guard Noah Fernandes for the second consecutive game. For a night, the Minutemen didn’t miss them.
Pierre made five 3s and scored 19 points with five rebounds and five assists. He didn’t turn the ball over and moved into second on UMass’ career 3-pointers list.
“He did everything,” McCall said. “He kept our team composed, especially late in the game.”
He didn’t have to do it alone. Three other Minutemen reached double figures: Mark Gasperini, Ronnie DeGray III and Cairo McCrory each scored 11 points, and all played a solo during UMass’ basketball symphony.
McCrory scored seven points in the first half and didn’t miss from the floor. He made two sky-walking blocks that energized the Minutemen when they were lagging a possession behind Rhode Island (9-11, 6-7) for most of the opening half. McCrory swatted Jeremy Sheppard out of the sky with 2:28 to halftime then corralled the rebound and carried the ball up the floor. After an initial drive failed, he pulled his dribble out then penetrated all the way to the rim for a layup.
Rhode Island missed a quick 3, then McCrory swished a 3 to put UMass up six. He finished with 11 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three steals.
“Talk about a complete game,” McCall said. “The thing about Cairo is, he’s a competitor. He’s not afraid of anything out there.”
DeGray initiated UMass’ offense for much of the second half. Rhode Island guard Fatts Russell was causing the Minutemen’s lead guards problems with his quick hands, nabbing three steals. So McCall turned to the versatile DeGray, who he compared to Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green.
“I talked him about that the other day, when you rebound you start the break. When you have a guy like that you can use him in so many different ways,” McCall said. “He’s one of the best freshmen in the league. There’s a lot of good freshmen, but you’ve got to put him up there.
Gasperini, who his teammates call Uncle Mark because he’s the team’s elder statesman, opened the second half with a dunk. He threw pinpoint passes out of the pick and roll and dove on the floor for a loose ball. Gasperini finished with five rebounds, four assists, a block and two steals. He also made his first 3 as a Minuteman with 1:54 left. It put UMass up 75-60, the biggest lead of the game, and sent the bench into a frenzy jumping and filling the empty arena with cheers.
“Mark is a humble dude. He comes in every day does what he needs to do, takes care of business, chips away,” Pierre said. “We all just want him to succeed. He’s an easy guy to root for.”
UMass switched to a 2-3 matchup zone in the second half. The Rams didn’t make a 3-pointer all game. They were only hurting the Minutemen with drives, post ups and offensive rebounds. Rhode Island finished with 12 offensive rebounds and scored 50 points in the paint.
“One of Rhode Island’s weaknesses is they don’t shoot the ball well from the perimeter,” McCall said. “Once we started getting some stops and figured out how to rebound in that zone, we stuck with it.”
Rhode Island turned the ball over 14 times. The Rams struggled to generate offense without Russell, their senior point guard. He has been managing several injuries and missed their previous game against VCU. Russell played 27 minutes and scored nine points with three assists and three rebounds. He didn’t start the game and checked out for good with 10:33 remaining, heading to the locker room after making 1-of-2 free throws.
“Defensively, he was causing us a lot of problems,” McCall said. “I felt the zone was a way to keep him out of the lane.”