AMHERST — The vaunted VCU defense lived up to its billing on Saturday at the Mullins Center.
The Rams’ aggressive defense gave UMass fits, limiting the Minutemen to just 23 first-half points as VCU raced out to a 41-23 lead at the break.
The Rams ended up turning UMass over 22 times in the game, scoring 27 points off those turnovers to defeat the Minutemen, 77-62.
“We did a poor job handling their pressure,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “We turned it over the first play of the game. All we talked about the last 48 hours was how we would attack their press but we just didn’t execute. It’s like we were distracted because we were so concerned about where their trap was coming and when it wasn’t coming. We had a really poor performance.”
The Minutemen (12-15, 5-10 Atlantic 10) couldn’t get anything going beyond the arc against the Rams (20-7, 13-3). UMass finished 3-for-19 from 3-point land and made just 38.2 percent of their shots from the field.
Noah Fernandes was held in check by the VCU defense, going 3-for-11 from the field to finish with nine points.
“You can’t miss shots and turn it over,” McCall said. “If we’re going to miss shots, we need to get more shot attempts. We can’t have 22 turnovers. I don’t know who going forward presses but I’m sure they’ll watch these last two films and we’ll see some pressure. We hadn’t seen it all year and we haven’t handled it well the last two games. We have to figure it out and get better.”
While the offense wasn’t clicking, the Rams found ways to get easy baskets for themselves. VCU scored 48 points in the paint, many coming in transition after its defense turned the Minutemen over.
“Twenty-seven points off turnovers, that’s layups and dunks off turnovers,” McCall said. “Forty-eight points in the paint, 27 off turnovers, that’s why they scored like that.”
UMass never led in the contest. Both teams started slow on the offensive end, with the Rams holding a 6-5 lead at the 14:36 mark of the first half. VCU then went on an 11-2 run to take control of the game, going ahead 17-7 with 10:59 to play in the half.
The Minutemen cut the lead back to single digits, 30-21, with 3:27 to play in the half but the Rams closed the half out on an 11-2 run to take a 41-23 lead into the break.
UMass was just 8-for-31 from the field in the first half of action, turning the ball over 11 times.
“That was a surprise,” Minutemen center Trent Buttrick said. “We knew they pressed but I thought our lack of discipline early, we couldn’t take care of the ball. They turned the ball over a lot too, but we turned it over at critical moments which led to fastbreak points. You have to give them credit, they were non-stop the whole game.”
VCU’s harassing defense never let UMass back in the game in the second half. The Rams went ahead by as many as 25 with 16:33 to play, never letting UMass get within 15 points of them.
Buttrick led the Minutemen with 12 points in the loss. Michael Steadman finished with 11 points and Greg Jones added nine points. Keshawn Curry tallied 18 points for VCU while Marcus Tsohonis had 12 points in the victory.
UMass will turn the page quickly, with three games next week. The first comes on Monday, where it’ll travel to Fordham.
With the A-10 tournament fast approaching, the Minutemen still believe they have what it takes to make a run.
“This is the first team I’ve been on besides my junior year at Penn State where I felt we could win our conference tournament,” Buttrick said. “This team, we have so much offensive firepower that we could beat anybody on any given day. Maybe we can still make a run. I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep doing what I do best and try to put us in positions to win games.”