University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
St. Bonaventure
Men's Hoops Falls To St. Bonaventure, 70-60
January 06, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2000
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - Caswell Cyrus scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds as St. Bonaventure dominated the inside to beat Massachusetts 70-60 in an Atlantic 10 Conference opener Thursday night.
Peter Van Paassen chipped in with 17 points as the Bonnies (9-2, 1-0) won their seventh game in their last eight for their best start in 27 years.
UMass (6-7, 0-1) trailed by as many as 23 points and never came closer than nine points, 69-60, in the final seconds.
Monty Mack led the Minutemen with 19 points, followed by Chris Kirkland with 16. Shannon Crooks scored 14 points.
UMass fell behind from the opening buzzer. The Minutemen made one basket in the last nine minutes of the first half. The Bonnies, led by Cyrus, finished the half with a 19-5 run to take a 39-21 lead into the break. Cyrus had 14 points before intermission, going 7-for-10 from the field.
The Bonnies shot 54.5 percent in the first half, in contrast to UMass's 32.0 percent. For the game, the Bonnies were 50 percent and UMass 34.4 percent.
