Massachusetts Basketball Falters To Eastern Michigan On The Road

Ypsilanti, Mich. -- University of Massachusetts men's basketball dropped an 80-74 decision to Eastern Michigan on Tuesday night at Gervin GameAbove Center (2,860).

Senior forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford led the Minutemen with his fifth double-double of the season, including 18 points and 11 rebounds. Marcus Banks Jr., and K'Jei Parker added 14 points apiece, as Dimitri Clerc contributed a career-best 13 points. Danny Carbuccia dished out a team-leading six assists on the night.

Carlos Hart and Addison Patterson posted double-doubles for the Eagles. Hart put up a game-high 23 points and 12 boards, while Patterson had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Mohammad Habhab tallied 20 points and Jon Sanders totaled 12. Habhab added a team-high six assists.

How It Happened

Danny Carbuccia, Leonardo Bettiol, Marcus Banks Jr., Daniel Hankins-Sanford and Jayden Ndjigue started for the Minutemen.

A pair of Daniel Hankins-Sanford free throws stopped the Eagles 6-0 run to open the game.

K'Jei Parker hit a three to make it a 9-5 game at 14:32.

Hankins-Sanford snagged a rebound down low and put it back to move it to 14-9, and then Carbuccia turned the corner for a layup to make it 14-11 at 11:00.

Clerc made back-to-back buckets to make it a one-point game, 18-17, at 8:13.

At 7:58, Eastern Michigan's Carlos Hart picked up a foul on Ndjigue and then was assessed a technical and Banks Jr., made both free throws followed by Ndjigue making a pair for a 21-20 UMass lead – the first Minuteman lead of the night.

Banks Jr., hit a pair of threes to put UMass back in front, 35-31 with just over two minutes to play in the first half.

The first half ended with UMass in front, 41-38, with the Minutemen paced by Clerc's career-high 11 points.

A Hankins-Sanford dunk pushed the UMass lead to 45-41 at 16:52 of the second half.

A Carbuccia driving layup at 15:12 kept the Minutemen in front, 49-45.

Eastern Michigan tied it, 51-51, and then took and extended the lead to 55-51 on a Hart layup at 11:27.

Ndjigue put back a Hankins-Sanford miss, was fouled and made the free throw to cut the EMU lead to 57-54 at 9:34.

On a 5-0 run, the Eagles were in front 62-54 at the under eight media timeout.

Banks Jr., hit a three following the timeout followed by a Parker three to make it 62-59 at 6:54.

Hankins-Sanford made it a 70-65 game with a pair of free throws at 4:21 and then he converted a layup at 3:36 to cut the Eagles lead to 71-69.

Parker then made a three to move it to a 77-74 game with 1:15 remaining, but it was as close at the Minutemen could get before the Eagles iced the game.

Numbers To Know

27: Massachusetts scored 27 points off the bench, 10 more than Eastern Michigan (17).

13: Dimitri Clerc posted a career-high 13 points.

9: The Minutemen outscored the Eagles by nine in fast break points (14-5).

6: The game featured six lead changes to go along with three ties.

4: Four Minutemen reached doubles figures: Daniel Hankins-Sanford (18), Marcus Banks Jr. (14), K'Jei Parker (14) and Dimitri Clerc (13).

Up Next

The Minutemen play host to Bowling Green at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 3 (tickets).

The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with live updates and links available at umassathletics.com or @UMassMBB on X (Twitter).

Scoreboard