By Pat Tintle
Sports Editor
Coming off back-to-back buzzer-beating wins, the Bonnies failed to replicate their recent success as they fell to UMass 55-53 on Wednesday night.
After both teams started the game 2-12 from the field, the Bonnies took a 9-5 lead seven minutes into play, with help coming from two early three pointers by senior guard Andell Cumberbatch.
But the Minutemen would fight back late in the first half to give themselves a 30-23 lead, shooting 52.9 percent from the field in that time.
“The last six or seven minutes of the first half we didn’t play very well,” Head Coach Mark Schmidt said. “We turned the ball over too much in the first half.”
The team had 11 turnovers in the first half.
However, the Bonnies would come out rejuvenated in the second half, starting with an 18-5 run, and Bona’s would lead the Minutemen 41-35 at the 12-minute mark. Junior guard Marcus Posley, who only scored three points in the first half, came out as the main offensive threat in the second half both in the paint and from a distance.
“We collected ourselves and played much better in the second half,” Schmidt said. “We forced 20 turnovers.”
But UMass would not go down without a fight. The Minutemen slowly chipped away at the Bonnies’ lead and with just over one minute left in regulation, saw their deficit shrink to 53-52.
The Bonnies called a timeout with 23.1 seconds left on the clock, retaining possession when play started. But a sloppy pass from Cumberbatch led to a UMass steal by junior guard Derrick Gordon, which then gave junior guard Jabarie Hinds the game-winning three point shot to put the Minutemen up 55-53. The Bonnies attempted to tie the game as the final seconds ticked away, but Cumberbatch’s final three-point attempt fell short of giving the Brown and White their third straight victory.
“We didn’t execute at the end,” Schmidt said. “We had three mishaps; we didn’t get a rebound off a foul shot, we fouled 94 feet from the basket, and then we didn’t execute an out-of-bounds play. In the Atlantic 10, you have to execute. But (UMass) hit a big shot, you have to give them credit.”
The Bonnies leading playmaker, freshman guard Jaylen Adams, fouled out of the game with only one minute left. Schmidt stated that was a big hurdle for this team to handle.
“That was part of it,” Schmidt said. “You always want to have your point guard in the game, that’s common sense. It’s a team game and other guys had to pick him up.”
As many Bonnies fans were anticipating, Schmidt wanted Posley to get the ball in the game’s final play, but miscommunication prevented that from happening.
“Marcus was supposed to get the ball,” Schmidt said. “He’s our best foul shooter and we were supposed to follow him. It was just 18, 19, 20-year-old kids playing basketball, and they made a mistake.”
Posley, coming off a heart-breaking loss, reiterated what his coach said.
“Like (Schmidt) said, it was just miscommunication,” Posley said. “I tried to get the ball, it didn’t happen, and just another guy had to take the shot.”
The Bonnies loss was the 64th meeting between the two schools. UMass leads the A-10 rivalry 41-23, however, the teams have split their last 28 meetings with 14 wins apiece.
The Bonnies will be back in action tomorrow as they travel to Ohio to play Dayton at 7 p.m.
