AMHERST — Standout performances from Marcus Banks Jr. and Danny Carbuccia catapulted the UMass men’s basketball team past Harvard, 78-71, at the Mullins Center on Wednesday night.
Banks Jr. drained a season-high 29 points, highlighted by a 5-of-9 clip from beyond the arc, while Carbuccia concluded with a game-high 13 assists, as the Minutemen improved to 5-3 overall in the victory over the Crimson (5-5).
“Before the games, during the national anthem, I always close my eyes and talk to myself and I told myself, ‘don’t get too high, don’t get too low, if you start missing shots, don’t worry about it, the next one is going in,’ so I had that mentality the whole night,” Banks Jr. said.
UMass built a 15 point lead by the halftime break, ahead, 36-21, but Harvard nearly pulled off a comeback during the second half of play. The Crimson cut the Minutemen’s lead to as low as three points with about 30 seconds remaining, in large part due to Robert Hinton’s heroics.
Harvard’s sophomore led all players with 35 points in the intrastate meeting, with 31 coming after the break.
However, UMass sank all six of its final free throws late in the contest to hold off the charging Crimson.
“We got to figure out who we want to be,” Minutemen head coach Frank Martin said. “[Do] we want to be the team that was in total control of the game against a really good team for 25 minutes? Or do we want to be the team that just tried to be cute and chill and relaxed and almost gave the game away because of those things?”
While Hinton had a huge say in Harvard’s ability to roar back, the Minutemen also didn’t do themselves any favors, particularly managing the ball, as they committed four turnovers in the final five minutes of regulation.
“We were a step slow on our rotations and then when they did get to the rim, we fouled too much,” UMass’ Jayden Ndjigue said. “So now they’re putting points on the board when the clock stops, so that slowed the game down and ultimately, played in their favor.”
The Crimson didn’t make a 3-pointer until the second half, missing their first 11 attempts during the first 20 minutes. The Minutemen, on the other hand, knocked down 50% of its shots from 3-point land (6-of-12) early on.
Carbuccia’s 13 helpers put the freshman in a tie for seventh all-time in program history for assists in a single game.
“Danny’s earned the right to become a starter on our team,” Martin said. “Danny’s going to play. He’s stubborn and he gets a little moody, but that’s because he’s good and when he gets moody, that’s when he hears from me.”
Carbuccia played the second-most minutes among UMass players on Wednesday, hitting the court for more than 36 minutes. Banks paced the hosts with just over 37 minutes played.
Leonardo Bettiol (18 points), K’Jei Parker and Ndjigue (10 points each) all reached double figures for the Minutemen, who shot 50% (28-for-55) from the field.
Free throws favored Harvard, which made 80% of its shots from the line, while UMass only sank 66% of its free throws. Although, Minutemen senior Daniel Hankins-Sanford was the only player below 50% from the charity stripe (3-of-9).
“Our free-throw shooting is almost identical to our issues as a team right now,” Martin said. “We got to figure out how to focus and sustain.”
UMass will return to Mullins for another in-state opponent this weekend when it welcomes UMass Lowell on Saturday, Dec. 6.
Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.
