UMass men’s basketball: No. 22 Miami (OH) maneuvers past Minutemen, 86-77

AMHERST — In its first home matchup against a ranked opponent since 2020, the UMass men’s basketball team suffered a tough, 86-77 defeat to undefeated No. 22 Miami (OH) on Tuesday night.

The Minutemen played in front of a packed Mullins Center crowd, with a listed 7,524 fans in attendance. Tuesday night’s crowd included the most fans for UMass since the season opener of the 2014-2015 season.

Despite the final score showcasing a nine-point deficit, the contest was much more of a battle than the end result. The Redhawks did lead the game for 36:15 out of the 40 minutes, but never held a lead greater than 10 points.

Fans of the Minutemen stayed loud throughout the close battle, with the student section flooded with white shirts and signs helping to create quite the atmosphere.

“That’s what you want as a competitor,” Miami head coach Travis Steele said. “All these environments that we get to play in, it’s awesome. That student section was terrific tonight. And it’s been that way everywhere we go.”

UMass found itself down by just three points with a little over seven minutes to go in the second half, with the shot clock winding down. Isaiah Placide held the ball for the Minutemen, losing control briefly before heaving up a 30-footer on the left wing as the buzzer sounded and banking the shot in to tie the game at 68-68.

The crowd went into an uproar, with all of the momentum in UMass’ favor. Unfortunately for the Minutemen faithful, the Redhawks’ pedigree of being one of the best teams in the country came through down the stretch.

Miami held UMass to just four made shots over the final seven minutes, while continuing to score from all three levels. With the highest scoring offense in the nation heading into Tuesday night’s game (92.6 points per game), failing to score against the Redhawks was hard to work through for the Minutemen.

“[I’m] disappointed that we had a chance to take a big step forward as a program,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. ” A lot of people have worked really hard to help us build a fan base, and we get an opportunity to reward those fans for coming out to support us, and we can’t figure out a way to close out that game.”

Placide’s late 3-pointer was one of five in a big night for the graduate guard, who provided a great spark off the bench despite the loss. Entering the game late in the first half, Placide caught fire from beyond the arc, knocking down his other four triples in exactly three minutes of game time.

The middle three deep shots for Placide all came on consecutive possessions, with his heat check fourth attempt resulting in a foul. The graduate finished with 19 points across 18:05 minutes of playing time, with each of the two milestones being season highs.

“I know the work I put in, and I trust myself, and the coaches and players trust me,” Placide said. “Having that confidence, knowing somebody has your back, [you can] just keep shooting. Once I [saw] the first one go down, it’s like practice at that point.”

On the other side, Peter Suder led Miami with 23 points in the win. The senior was lethal from all three levels, hitting 2-of-3 shots from deep while also getting to the line for seven made free throws.

Luke Skaljac also made a big impact for the Redhawks on Tuesday, distributing seven assists as the team’s main ball handler. The sophomore added one of his best scoring games of the season, tallying 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field.

Danny Carbuccia battled with Skaljac all night long at the point guard spot for the Minutemen, putting together one of the best games of his young career. On the big stage, the freshman rose to the occasion, finding success getting to the rim and finishing the night with 15 points.

“I watched a lot of film from the last game [against Miami], and the coaches told me when I drive, get into paint, create stuff, it turns into positive activity for us,” Carbuccia said. “So I was just trying to get downhill attack and create plays.”

UMass dealt with foul trouble to some of its main contributors, headlined by Leonardo Bettiol fouling out with just under three minutes left after scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds.

Jayden Ndjigue struggled immensely for the Minutemen in the loss, picking up four fouls in just 12:55 minutes of playing time. The junior’s defense was far worse than his usual standards, while only mustering up two points on the offensive end.

In what was its first home-ranked matchup since the 2019-2020 season, UMass came up just short of a monumental victory. The RedHawks now improve to 26-0 overall and 13-0 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) on the season, hoping to be the first team to finish the regular season undefeated since Gonzaga back in the 2020-2021 campaign.

With three losses in a row, the Minutemen (15-12, 6-8 MAC) will look to bounce back on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m. when they host Buffalo. It will also be senior night and the 30th anniversary of the 1996 Final Four team at the Mullins Center.

“It’s not the time of year you want to be on these losing streaks,” Martin said. “You’ve got to figure out a way to get right… We’ve got to figure out a way to just, I don’t want to say, play better, because it’s not like we’re playing bad. We’ve got to play with a little bit more discipline, and the attention to detail and toughness defensively has to be better.”