University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
George Mason
Men's Hoops Heads To George Mason Saturday Night
February 23, 2018 | Men's Basketball
Minutemen and Patriots set for 6 PM tip on MASN.
AMHERST, Mass. -Â Coming off a narrow loss to VCU on Wednesday night, the UMass basketball team heads to George Mason on Saturday night. The game will be televised on MASN with the opening tip slated for 6 PM at EagleBank Arena.Â
Bill Rohland (play-by-play) and Craig Esherick (analyst) will call the action for MASN. The game will also be streamed on the Atlantic 10 Digital Network.Â
On the radio airwaves, the game will be broadcast on the UMass Sports Network anchored by flagship station 105.5 FM WEEI and online via the TuneIn App. Voice of the Minutemen Josh Maurer will be joined courtside by former Minuteman Tim Collins.
UMass is currently tied with Fordham for 13th in the A-10 standings with a 4-11 league record. George Mason enters the game with a 7-8 league record which is tied for sixth.
George Mason leads the all-time series 4-3 since the Patriots join the A-10 for the 2013-14 season. GMU has won the last three meetings.
Wednesday's game saw a tight battle between the Minutemen and Rams with Luwane Pipkins once again leading the way with a spectacular 38-point performance. The sophomore is now just 61 points shy of 1,000 for his career. The game featured six ties and 13 lead changes. After the game was tied 65-65 late in the second half, VCU scored eight straight to take control of the contest. C.J. Anderson scored 15 points, while Carl Pierre notched 10. Pipkins also hit eight three pointers in the loss to tie the UMass single-game record for the second time in his career.
Pipkins remains ninth all-time for career three-pointers made (165) and moved up to fifth for single-season threes (94), while Pierre continues to rank 15th with 78 three-pointers to extend his UMass freshman record.Â
On the season, UMass continues to be led by Pipkins who is averaging 21.5 points followed by Pierre who is posting 12.2 points in his rookie campaign. The lone senior on the roster, Anderson, has been one of the most well-rounded players on the squad with 9.4 points, 5.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game. Over the last six games, Anderson has been scoring at a clip of 14.5 points while averaging 5.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds.
After averaging 23.4 points per game in January, Pipkins leads the A-10 for scoring average this season and is 21st nationally. His 44 points against La Salle set a new UMass school record, a Mullins Center record, was the ninth-best performance in A-10 history and was the fourth-best individual performance in the NCAA this season. Defensively, the Chicago native is 8th overall in steals per game (1.54). Offensively, the guard has improved from 2016-17 to this season by +11.3 points per game - the best of any Minuteman this year. Pipkins is looking to become the sixth player in program history to average 20-plus points for a season - a list which includes Julius Erving, Jim McCoy and Marcus Camby.
Anderson ranks fifth among the league's best in assists as well with 5.1 per game while his 137 assists are third-most overall.
Pierre ranks second in the A-10 for three-point field goal percentage (45.9%) and is the nation's most accurate three-point shooting freshman through 28 games. Overall, the Boston native ranks 11th nationally in three-point field goal percentage. He currently holds the third-best single-season shooting percentage in school history from beyond the arc. With 78 made threes, he broke the previous UMass freshman record shared by Pipkins and Anthony Anderson (2001-02).
For complete coverage of the UMass men's basketball team, follow the Minutemen on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @UMassBasketball and online at www.UMassAthletics.com.
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