UMass Comeback Falls Short On The Road At Saint Louis, 65-62

Team	1	2	F
Massachusetts	25	37	62
Saint Louis	32	33	65

Massachusetts

Saint Louis

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team put together a double-digit comeback in the second half to pull within a point twice in the final two minutes of play, but could not score the go-ahead field goal in the final minute of play as Saint Louis came away with a 65-62 win on Wednesday night at the Chaifetz Arena. Luwane Pipkins helped spark a late UMass (7-8 Overall, 0-2 Atlantic 10) comeback with 15 of his team-high 18 points in the second half while the Minuteman defense held Saint Louis (11-4 Overall, 2-0 Atlantic 10) without a made field goal for the final 7:12 of regulation.

UMass started the night on a 6-0 run that included four quick points for Rashaan Holloway, who finished with 12 points on 5-of-5 from the field despite running into foul trouble with his second at the 12:43 mark in the first half as Saint Louis took their first lead of the night at 12-10.

Samba Diallo sparked a 7-0 UMass scoring run in his fourth career start, helping the Minutemen go back ahead 22-21 just over halfway through the opening half after falling down by six with five of his seven first half points to tie a previous career-high. Diallo went on to finish the game with new career-highs in points with nine and rebounds with a team-leading 12, breaking his previous best marks set on the road at Providence in his first career start.

Saint Louis picked up 11 second chance points in the opening 20 minutes to build a 27-22 lead at the half despite going 1-of-13 from the field down the stretch in the half on their way to shooting 12-of-36 in the first half and 22-of-56 on the night. Hasahn French scored a game-high 25 points for the Billikens while Tramaine Isabell Jr. added 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

The Minutemen continued to chip away at the Billiken lead in the second half after trailing by as many as 11 with 15:10 remaining, eventually using a 6-0 run by way of three consecutive made field goals to pull within a point on a pair of Pipkins free throws at the 9:04 mark.

A Pipkins fadeaway jumper with 1:46 left cut the lead down to a point once again after the home team pulled ahead by seven points at 60-53 with just over four minutes remaining. UMass had a chance to take their first lead since late in the first half coming out of a timeout with 1:13 remaining before a turnover lead to a Saint Louis split at the line down at the other end.

UMass retained possession on an out-of-bounds call after Pipkins missed the tail end of a trip to the line with 28-seconds remaining and again after a blocked shot with 17-seconds remaining before a missed jumper and a pair of made Saint Louis free throws sealed the game.

Carl Pierre chipped in 10 points on 2-of-3 from 3-point range to reach double-figures for the ninth time this year and the second straight game while Keon Clergeot added six and a team-high four assists.

The Minutemen continue their Midwest road trip on Sunday with a 3:30 p.m. matchup at Dayton on NBC Sports Network before returning home to host George Mason on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.

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