University of Massachusets Athletics
Reliving Rahsool Diggins and UMass Men’s Basketball’s Historic Triple Overtime Thriller
March 07, 2025 | General, Men's Basketball
Reliving Rahsool Diggins and UMass Men’s Basketball’s Historic Triple Overtime Thriller
BRONX, N.Y. -- No member of the UMass Men’s Basketball team or staff would tell you anything unusual was in the air ahead of their fifth game in Atlantic 10 competition against the Fordham Rams back on January 15. “Nothing out of the ordinary, just like any other road game,” Head Manager Aidan Deschaine said. “We traveled the day before, slept in the hotel, went to shootaround, and had our pregame meal. Just a typical day heading into the game.”
However, no one was prepared for what was about to ensue. On the eve of Rose Hill Gymnasium’s 100th anniversary, the game tipped off at 7 p.m. Director of Basketball Operations Jake Hayden was occupied with his gametime responsibilities. “I was pretty dialed in,” Hayden said, “anytime you can win on the road, it’s important; it gives your team energy.”
The game began, and Diggins came out of the gate hot. He knocked down two early three-pointers, opening the scoring and giving UMass a quick 6-0 lead. “When my adrenaline gets rushing real bad and I’m yelling, I can’t breathe,” Diggins said. “So I feel my heart racing, and I’m like, ‘Alright, I gotta calm down, take a deep breath.’”
You start to get worried about his fluids and how he’s going to perform, but he found a way to get out there.”- David Maclutsky, Athletic Trainer
About fifteen minutes into the first half, Diggins was subbed out. “As I’m walking to the bench, I’m like, I gotta throw up,” Diggins said. Team Athletic Trainer David Maclutsky was on the scene quickly. “Rahsool threw up and then sort of continued throughout the game,” Maclutsky recalled. “My first thought is I’m worried about [his] hydration status. You start to get worried about his fluids and how he’s going to perform, but he found a way to get out there.”
With a front row seat while on the radio call of the game, Director of Broadcasting Jay Burnham was unsure of Diggins’ status. “You’re thinking, geez, he’s probably out for the game,” Burnham thought.
“We wanted to push some clear water or sports drinks that we use [to Rahsool],” Maclutsky detailed, “but he kept throwing everything up. It got to a point in the second half where I said, ‘Alright, don’t drink anything.’ I was just making sure he was healthy enough to play.”
“Once I got that out of my system, I thought I’d be cool to go,” Diggins said.
The contest against Fordham was a back-and-forth, physical matchup for the Minutemen. They entered halftime with an eight-point lead over the Rams, but the game was far from over. Fordham battled back and even took the lead with 5:10 left in regulation. The Minutemen found themselves in a three-point deficit with 24 seconds left, despite Diggins scoring 20 points in the second half while dealing with heavy nausea.
“You probably want to air on the side of caution when working with young student-athletes, but it just goes to show how tough Sool can be,” Burnham stated.
"It just goes to show how tough Sool can be”- Jay Burnham, Voice of The Minutemen
Down 79-76, the Minutemen needed a shot to fall if they wanted to stay alive. Guard Marqui Worthy hadn’t connected on a three-pointer in the game’s first 39:52, but with 7.2 seconds remaining, he hit arguably the biggest shot of his collegiate career, a 24-foot game-tying three to send the game to overtime. “Here he is, he steps up in the biggest moment and takes a huge shot to tie it up,” Burnham said. “Right wing, he just buries it to send us to OT.”
“That was awesome,” Hayden said about Worthy's three. “He deserved that to go in the way he was being guarded all game.”
At 79 points apiece, overtime began. “There were such peaks and valleys in that game, and the highs were really high, and the lows were low,” Maclutsky remembered. With twelve more points in overtime from Diggins, the Minutemen inched ahead to a 98-95 lead, and it seemed he had secured the victory and was going to end the night with an incredible 40-point performance. “Unfortunately, there were some moments that went the other way, though,” Hayden said. A foul on a three-point attempt was called against the Minutemen on Fordham’s Romand Dead, sending him to the free-throw line for three shots to tie the game. He knocked all three down, and they were headed for double overtime.
“The last play when I thought the game was over…that’s when I was like ‘I don’t know if I can go,’” Diggins shared. Maclutsky said, “It’s amazing that he found it within himself to perform like that with how he was feeling. It wasn't like he was playing, making the shots, and just trying to get through it. He was enjoying playing basketball—playing at a high, high level.”
"It wasn't like he was playing, making the shots, and just trying to get through it. He was enjoying playing basketball—playing at a high, high level.”- David Maclutsky, Athletic Trainer
Double overtime was no less intense than the first. Neither UMass nor Fordham could build more than a two-point lead, and by this time, multiple key players had fouled out. “[I’m] tracking whoever has X amount of fouls,” Hayden said. “In a triple overtime thriller, I think there were nine guys that fouled out, and we used seven timeouts. It was very stressful.”
Once the clock hit zero at 108-108, everyone in the Bronx’s Rose Hill Gym knew they were witnessing a special matchup. Triple overtime.
“I was trying to be even-keeled,” Burnham remembered, “make sure that you build it to a crescendo of the moments that matter most.”
“It came to a point where I made a joke after the game,” Deschaine remarked. “I almost didn’t want it to end.” He explained how they weren’t getting home until 2, maybe 3 a.m. regardless, so “let’s just keep playing basketball.”
“I almost didn’t want it to end.”- Aidan Deschaine, Head Manager
Fordham jumped out to a 113-108 lead to begin the third five-minute overtime period, and things were looking bleak for the Minutemen. However, Diggins refused to back down and sank his eighth three-pointer of the night, bringing his point total to 44 and cutting the lead to two. UMass battled back, but Fordham extended their lead back up to 118-114 with 1:42 left. Diggins drove inside, got a layup to fall for his record-setting 46th point, and it was all UMass from there. The Minutemen defense forced a turnover, and forward Daniel Rivera set his career high, sealing the game with two layups and finishing with 29 points.
UMass had pulled off the victory. The team had tied the program scoring record at 120, and Rahsool Diggins had set the program’s individual scoring record with an unbelievable 46-point performance. Watching Diggins “throw up on the floor, having to stop a game for that, and then watching him score 40 more from that point on…I was just like, ‘who else could do that?’” Deschaine wondered.
“We’re a very optimistic team,” Hayden said. After Diggins was subbed out, “he returned and had 28 points at the end of regulation. It gave our players extra motivation, to fight for him and to earn that.” Deschaine shared a similar sentiment: “You stick it out and trust the process. To see him score 46 in such a historic gymnasium, I was so proud to see that.”
As the game progressed, Burnham remembers flipping through his notes, watching Diggins approach the scoring record. He reflected on the “symmetry” of the game: “having Diggins now married to Dr. J, who was the last visiting player to score the [points] record in that arena, there’s something poetic about it.”
“We showed a lot of resilience, staying positive,” Diggins said. “Even though the game turned in a negative way, we flipped it, stayed the course, and finished it out on the road.”
Since the showdown in the Bronx, Diggins has eclipsed 1,000 career points while winning three National Player of the Week Awards. The senior guard has consistently led the A-10 in scoring through conference play, averaging better than 20.5 points through 17 A-10 games. Although the end to his time in the maroon and white may be fast approaching, Diggins record-setting 46-point performance will live with Massachusetts basketball history forever.
