SPRINGFIELD – North Texas’ clarity of purpose provided a heading against UMass.
Even when the Minutemen took a lead, the Mean Green stuck to their grimy principles and pushed ahead, outscoring UMass by 22 in the second half after scoring just 22 points themselves before halftime in a 62-44 win at the MassMutual Center on Saturday as part of the Hall of Fame Classic.
“They have a discipline, a built-in dynamic. That’s what you need when you have a winning program. They’ve got that, and we don’t,” UMass coach Frank Martin said. “We fought for a while, and then we gave in to the physicality and discipline.”
UMass didn’t score over the game’s final 4 minutes, 23 seconds. The Minutemen (8-3) missed their last four shots and eight of their last nine. North Texas (9-2) closed on a 12-0 run.
“Physical, defensive teams are the ones that have beaten us. You’ve got to be able to execute on offense. You’ve got to play with an internal toughness,” Martin said.
The Minutemen last led 30-29 with 13:45 left during which North Texas’ Moulaye Sissoko made two free throws that ultimately tied the game at 30. They were part of an 8-0 Mean Green run that erased UMass’ biggest lead.
North Texas built a nine-point advantage with 10:26 on the clock after Kai Huntsberry (14 points) sank a fast break layup to make it 44-35.
The Minutemen crawled back, and set up a clear lane to the hoop for forward Brandon Martin down six with a chance to make it a two-possession game with 4:30 left. North Texas’ Abou Ousmane rejected the shot, and lead guard Tylor Perry pushed the ball up the floor.
Huntsberry found an open Matthew Stone in the left corner for a glass house shattering 3. No better man to have in a rock fight. He converted a Perry steal on UMass’ next possession into a fast break layup to restore North Texas’ double-digit advantage 55-44 with 2:58 left.
Perry scored a game-high 23 points, his fourth game of the season with at least 20.
“He’s a winner. He’s been there forever. It seems like it’s his 27th year in college,” Martin said.
North Texas’ guards outscored UMass 37-0, as the Minutemen’s backcourt struggled with foul trouble. Freshman Keon Thompson and UConn transfer Rahsool Diggins each picked up their third foul within two minutes of the second half starting, and they both had four by the 12:31 mark. Neither scored.
UMass was without starting guard Noah Fernandes for the fourth game in a row with a sprained ankle he suffered at Harvard. The senior is out of his walking boot and did some light jogging the day before the game against the Mean Green.
“(Perry) just toyed with us, and then we got away from our ball screen coverages that we talked about. As the game started kind of leaking out a little bit when it got to eight, nine, we broke off our ball screen coverages and guys started switching ball screens rather than having to discipline which is what winning teams do. We’re not there yet,” Martin said. “We’re good enough to win a game. We’re not a winning program yet. It’s a big difference.”
Fouls defined the second half as much as baskets or turnovers. The referees whistled UMass for 16 fouls after halftime, and North Texas committed 12. There were 49 fouls in the game compared to 28 made field goals.
“Fouls are bad plays. The only good foul is when you’ve got a layup and I come across the land and I put you on your head,” Martin said. “We committed a lot of bad fouls. When you make those, you’re putting a team that’s struggling to score on the foul line. Credit to them, they know how to play. They didn’t get out of their disciplines.”
UMass held North Texas to 30.8 percent shooting from the field (24 percent in the first half). The Minutemen won the rebounding battle 43-37.
But UMass only shot 24 percent all game, hitting 19.2 percent over the second 40 minutes. The Minutemen missed all eight 3s they took, and they turned the ball over 19 times.
“Our being inept offensively, which they made us inept, they made us have to have discipline to get the ball to certain spots, to play through contact, play through toughness, have discipline. We’re not there yet,” Martin said. “Our being inept offensively against a team like this eventually broke our defensive spirit that you’ve got to have so you can compete with a team like this.”
Matt Cross paced UMass with a 19-point, 13-rebound double-double. Dyondre Dominguez scored 12 points with nine boards, and Thompson distributed three assists.
The Minutemen have one nonconference game remaining Tuesday against Dartmouth (7 p.m. NESN) at the Mullins Center before an extended break leads into Atlantic 10 play at Saint Bonaventure on New Year’s Eve.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.