Massachusetts Drops Tight Road Battle At St. Bonaventure

OLEAN, N.Y. -- Massachusetts (14-8, 5-5 Atlantic 10) dropped a tightly contested contest to St. Bonaventure (14-8, 5-5 A-10), 79-73, on Wednesday evening at the Reilly Center.

Playing 37 minutes, senior Matt Cross led the Minutemen, finishing the game with 19 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Also helping lead the effort was sophomore guard Keon Thompson who played extremely efficient, going 7-9 from the field for 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds in 34 minutes.

UMass also got double-digit performances from Jayden Ndjigue, who was one point away from tying his career-high of 13, and a ten-point outing from Rahsool Diggins. Ndjigue had five rebounds while Diggins picked up a pair of steals.

The Bonnies were led by Charles Pride who tied Cross with a game-high 19 points, going 8-11 from the field.

Breaking Down The Action

After falling behind 7-0 early, Rahsool Diggins got UMass on the board with a fastbreak layup at 17:36.
Back-to-back buckets in the paint from Matt Cross brought the Minutemen within one at 15:42.
Coming off the bench, Jaylen Curry gave UMass its first lead of the game (12-11) with an elbow jumper.
Curry brought his efforts to the defensive end of the floor, stripping Noel Brown as he went up for a layup to keep UMass out in front.
Amidst a 12-0 run for UMass, Daniel Hankins-Sanford knocked down a three-pointer and Keon Thompson threw down a transition dunk to extend the UMass lead to 17-11 before the under-12-minute media timeout.
Robert Davis Jr. capped the run with a three coming out of the break at 10:41.
Cross hit a deep three at 8:10 to give him seven points and push the Minutemen lead to 23-16.
Jayden Ndjigue followed his own miss to give UMass a 10-point lead.
Ndjigue hit a floater on the baseline at 5:42 to put UMass up 31-18, their largest lead of the first half.
Cross snapped a ten-point Bonnies run with a layup at 1:39.
Thompson got to the rim with a quick first step to get the UMass lead back to seven with under a minute to play in the first.
St. Bonaventure hit a late three and UMass would go into halftime holding a 38-34 lead.
To start the second half, Cross kicked it out to Thomspon for his second three of the game.
Cross cleaned up a Diggins miss with a tip-in to put UMass up 43-36 with 17:58 to play.
Ndjigue finished through contact and drew a foul in transition. The freshman completed the three-point play to give him nine points.
After the Bonnies got to within one, Ndjigue hit a corner three to get the lead back up to four at 13:32.
Thompson scored on back-to-back possessions to give him a game-high 16 points and UMass a 59-55 lead.
Diggins followed with four consecutive points of his own, making a layup and hitting a pair of free throws.
After St. Bonaventure tied the game at 63 all, Cross stole the ball and found Josh Cohen for his first bucket and UMass was back in front with 7:49 to go.
St. Bonaventure took the lead after a three-point play, but a Diggins steal and dunk on the other end had UMass up 71-70 with under five minutes remaining.
After numerous lead changes in the final five minutes, UMass found themselves down by three with 22 seconds to play.
A Cohen three was unsuccessful and St. Bonaventure would go on to take this one, 79-73.

New Kids On The Block

Jayden Ndjigue led the newcomers as the freshman was one point shy of his career-high in points, finishing with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
Daniel Hankins-Sanford pulled down four rebounds and went 2-3 from the field to give him five points in nine minutes.

Numbers To Know

.450: UMass shot 28-58 from the field (.483), the 11th time this year they've shot better than .450.
7: Guard Keon Thompson grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, tying his career-high.
19: Matt Cross tied the game-high in points, finishing with 19 on 8-13 shooting.
22: The Minutemen had 22 points off 12 St. Bonaventure turnovers.
34: UMass narrowly outrebounded the Bonnies, 34-32.
42: A battle in the trenches, both teams finished the game with 42 points in the paint.

Year Two Under Coach Martin

Massachusetts Head Coach, Frank Martin now holds a 29-24 record leading the Minutemen.
Martin now sits with a 317-225 collegiate career record.

Series History

UMass now holds a 42-34 record all-time versus the Bonnies, dropping the 76th matchup between the two programs.

Up Next

The Minutemen return to the Mullins Center for a Super Bowl Sunday matchup against Rhode Island on Feb. 11 in Amherst, Mass. The broadcast can be found on USA Network with links and live updates available at umassathletics.com or @UMassMBB on X (Twitter).

Scoreboard

Next Event

Team Stats

Matt Cross

Keon Thompson

Jayden Ndjigue

Rahsool Diggins

Players Mentioned

Matt Cross

Jaylen Curry

Robert Davis Jr.

Rahsool Diggins

Daniel Hankins-Sanford

Keon Thompson

Players Mentioned

Matt Cross

Jaylen Curry

Robert Davis Jr.

Rahsool Diggins

Daniel Hankins-Sanford

Keon Thompson

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics