Balanced Attack Guides UMass To 80-74 Win Over La Salle

AMHERST, Mass. – Five Minutemen finished in double figures while all eight players who made an appearance scored as UMass picked up an 80-74 win over La Salle on Saturday in the Mullins Center. C.J. Kelly led the Minutemen (12-13 Overall, 5-8 Atlantic 10) with 18 points and eight rebounds while Rich Kelly added 17 points and a team-high five assists.

Both teams got off to a hot shooting start from the field before an 18-3 UMass scoring run gave the Minutemen a 26-13 advantage. UMass held La Salle (7-17 Overall, 2-12 A-10) scoreless for 6:25 of game time and held them to just over 40-percent from the field in the first while forcing 10 turnovers.

La Salle ended the first half on a 6-1 run after UMass extended its lead to the largest of the afternoon at 39-22 with 1:23 left and made it a 40-28 game at the break. The Explorers kept the run going into the second half, stringing together a 16-3 run to cut the Minuteman advantage down to four before eventually tying it up at 48-48 with 10:19 left on a Jack Clark triple.

The Minutemen answered by knocking down three consecutive 3-pointers, starting with one from C.J. Kelly before Greg Jones put home two from behind the arc to push the lead back to six. Jones added a layup the following possession to give him eight straight points for UMass on his way to finishing with 10 points off the bench. C.J. Kelly shot 6-of-8 from the field and went 2-of-3 from deep for a squad that shot just under 45-percent on the afternoon.s

UMass extended its lead back to double-digits at 72-62 with 2:02 left on a Noah Fernandes jumper before La Salle outscored the Minutemen 8-2 over the next 1:23 to make it a 74-70 game with just under 40-seconds remaining. The Minutemen went 6-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch to help secure the victory and finished the afternoon 23-of-27 from the stripe.

Michael Steadman scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half, including six of the first 13 UMass points while Fernandes added 10 points to round out the five double-figure scorers for the Minutemen.

UMass hits the road for a Wednesday matchup at Dayton at 7 p.m. and returns home to the Mullins Center on Saturday for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off against VCU.

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.

Scoreboard

Next Event

Team Stats

C.J. Kelly

Rich Kelly

Michael Steadman

Greg Jones

Players Mentioned

Noah Fernandes

Greg Jones

C.J. Kelly

Rich Kelly

Michael Steadman

Players Mentioned

Noah Fernandes

Greg Jones

C.J. Kelly

Rich Kelly

Michael Steadman

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics