University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
La Salle
Road Woes: UMass Loses At La Salle, 68-61.
January 29, 2006 | Men's Basketball
The loss drops UMass to 9-8 overall and 4-3 in the Atlantic 10. The Minuteman are 1-7 on the road this year and 0-3 in the league. For La Salle, the win breaks a five-game losing streak as it improves to 11-7 overall and 3-4 in the league. The Explorers have won four of the last five meetings between the teams.
Life hit a 3-pointer with 21.6 seconds left to make it 64-60, but La Salle's Jermaine Thomas made all of his four free in the final seconds to clinch the win.
Chris Lowe (12 points) hit a driving lay-up to cut it to 59-56 with 2:22 left. Explorer Thomas (19 points) matched the jumper with 1:47 to make it 61-56.
The Minutemen continued to fight to stay in the game but were hurt at the free throw line making just 3-of-9 from the line over a stretch in the second half and still trailed 59-54 with 4:18 remaining.
Trailing by as many as 13 (50-37), UMass started to slowly mount a comeback aided by four free throws from Lasme cutting it to 50-44 with 13:35 left.
Life opened up hot in the second half nailing a pair of 3-pointers to cut La Salle's lead to 40-34 just 1:53 in the half. La Salle quickly answered as Smith converted four straight lay-ups to give the Explorers an 11-point lead, 48-37.
La Salle's Darnell Harris canned two 3-pointers in a span of 41 seconds to give the Explorers a 33-24 lead - their largest of the first half with 59 seconds left in the half. UMass' Lowe hit a shot for the halftime score of 33-26.
UMass rallied back to within 19-17 on a 3-pointer by Lowe with 6:03 left in the first half, but La Salle scored two quick baskets to build the lead back to 23-17 with 5:08 remaining.
With UMass leading 9-3, La Salle went on a 12-0 run over a 4:30 span as Smith scored six in the run to give the Explorers a 15-9 lead with 10:44 left in the first half.
Lasme came out strong scoring five of UMass' first seven points as the Minutemen took a 9-3 lead with 4:23 into the game.
UMass rematches La Salle at the Mullins Center on Feb. 8. The Minutemen stay in Philadelphia and will take on Temple at the Liacouras Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m. That game will be shown live on CN8.
