Six in Double Figures lead UMass Lowell to a OT 94-89 win

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In March, college basketball is full of emotion. The ups and downs of a win-or-go-home setup is what makes the sport at this time of the year so exciting. That was on display on Saturday afternoon as the UMass Lowell River Hawks (21-9) needed overtime to defeat UMBC (11-21) by a 94-89 score. Six players finished in double-figures for the River Hawks led by the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Quinton Mincy who had a monster game of 27 points and 16 rebounds. The double-double was the fourth of the season for Mincy. He was the main reason the River Hawks are returning to the America East tournament semi-finals for the second straight year.

This was not easy as the Retrievers put up a great fight led by the backcourt duo of Dino Brown (18 points) and Markus Banks (24 points). UMBC was in the game from start to finish. In the first half, they had the lead for 19:14. At the 12:35 mark of the half, they were up ten at 17-7 on a Brown 3-pointer. Their best run of the half and the game was off the opening jump. An 8-0 run that was helped out by three River Hawks turnovers (20 for the game). Banks got started early with two 3-point makes in the first two and a half minutes of the first half. Ace Valentine (15 points) added a layup in the paint to get UMBC off to a good start.

As head coach of the River Hawks Pat Duquette said after the game “We struggled in the first ten minutes.” Indeed they did. They were down 21-11 at that point and were having a hard time with the defensive pressure the Retrievers were applying. But as the second ten minutes unfolded, UMass Lowell started playing much better basketball. They would go on a 7-0 run to close out the first half and take a lead with them to the locker room at 32-31. That run began with a Yuri Covington (11 points) three off a UMBC turnover. That was followed by Max Brooks (12 points) layup in the paint. Mincy gave them their first lead at 30-29 with another layup. After Brown took another UMass Lowell turnover and converted it into a basket to give UMBC the lead back at 31-30, Ayinde Hikim (12 points, 12 turnovers) knocked down a jumper to give UMass Lowell the lead at the half 32-31. UMass Lowell was 18-2 when leading at the half. UMBC was 2-11 when trailing at the half.

The second half was back and forth. There were 14 ties and 10 lead changes. Both teams would have the lead for basically the same amount of time. (UMBC for 7:21, UMass Lowell for 7:13) What really helped the River Hawks in the second half and the game was two things. First, second chances points. For the game, it was 20-4 in their favor, 9-2 in the second half. The second thing was the rebounding number. In the second half, the River Hawks outrebounded the Retrievers by a 20-11 count. For the game, it was 56-32 in favor of UMass Lowell. Despite all of that, the game stayed close. One reason why was the second-half play of UMBC’s big man Khydarius Smith who came off the bench when starter Max Lorca-Lloyd picked up his fourth foul with 14:26 left in the half. Smith, who has missed most of the conference season due to injury, scored 13 of his 15 points in the half. His production was huge for UMBC as it never allowed the River Hawks to pull away.

In the closing minutes, the game see-sawed with each team having leads that the other team would match. Brayden O’Connor (16 points) tied the game for UMass Lowell at 74-74 with 1:07 left in the game. Covington then gave them the lead at 76-74 with a layup in the paint with 32 seconds left. After a UMBC timeout, Brown hit a jumper with 17 seconds left to tie the game again at 76-76. The River Hawks called timeout to set up the last-second play. It was designed for Mincy, who instead of trying to take the ball to the basket, settled for a 3-point shot that he missed with 03 seconds left. After the game, Mincy said, ” That was definitely not the play we called.” The game went into overtime tied at 76-76.

The River Hawks had the lead for 3:37 seconds of the OT. It took 1:23 seconds before a point was scored. The River Hawks would score the first four points of the overtime. A basket and free throw by Covington, and a FT from O’Connor. Another 5-0 run by UMass Lowell came after a made FT from Banks An O’Connor 3-point play when he was fouled by Banks, then two free throws by Hikim gave UMass Lowell an 87-79 lead with 1:16 left. Back came UMBC with four in a row from Banks, two at the line, then a fastbreak layup off a pass from Valentine that brought UMBC back to within three at 87-84 with 56 seconds to play. The River Hawks would get free throws from both Mincy and Hikim to go up by seven at 91-84 with 36 seconds left. After a Bryce Johnson 3-ball made it 91-87, O’Connor hit one more at the line to bring it to 92-87 with 33 seconds left. Valentine made it a four-point game with a layup and it was 93-89 with 24 seconds left. The River Hawks would go on from there to get the win, 94-89.

River Hawks head coach Pat Duquette called it “A great college basketball game.” He did say he thought “we turned the ball over too much.” There were milestones reached by the backcourt duo of Banks and Brown of UMBC. Banks becomes the fourth player in the program’s history with 80+ 3-point makes (84). Brown becomes the fourth player in the program to have 600+ points in a season (607). Retrievers head coach Jim Ferry believes the future of the program is very bright with both Banks and Brown coming back next season. He thought the differences in the game were the second chance points and the rebounding margin. Both Banks and Brown praised Quinton Mincy on his ability to score and be a factor on the court.

Up next for the River Hawks is the Bryant Bulldogs in the semi-finals on Tuesday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 PM.