This game should have an NC-17 rating for the Massachusetts Minutemen fans. Don't let the twenty point loss fool you, it was a much bigger blowout than that.
It looked like Providence would run away with it from the tip as they held a 22-8 lead with 7:44 left in the first half. Then Zach Coleman hit his first shot of the season, which happened to be a three, and sparked a 9-2 UMass run.
Cady Lalanne would then pick up his second foul and take his seat on the bench. That pretty much ended any hope UMass had as Providence took advantage of the high school size lineup UMass employed and pushed their halftime lead to 37-24.
UMass struggled all game with the Friars size. It looked like Providence was running rebounding drills with all of the offensive boards they produced. The Friars finished with 17 as a team and totaled 42 overall, ten more than UMass. Carson Desrosiers produced six of those second chances and also tacked on ten points.
UMass also had no answer for LaDontae Henton, who had a game high 27 points and did pretty much whatever he wanted offensively.
Cady Lalanne really struggled today pretty up his worst preformance of the season. UMass cannot win a game where he only records four points and four rebounds. Maxie Esho put up nice numbers with 17 points, but someone had to score them.
The second half was even uglier with Providence extending their lead to as high as 32 at one point.
Trey Davis continued to his dissapointing season after commiting more turnovers than points. He did a nice job on the glass with six boards, but two points on six shots just won't cut it.
C.J. Anderson had his coming out game, hitting 3-4 threes and scoring 10 points. With UMass' trouble from deep hopefully he will get more oppurtunities down the road.
Donte Clark continued to provide nice minutes off the bench scoring 14 points and shooting an effective 7-8 from the stripe.
The Minutemen's struggles delved from a bevy of problems. Along with getting killed on the boards, they also shot 4-16 from three and committed 18 turnovers. All five starters committed at least two turnovers, while forcing just nine from Providence as a team.
It doesn't get much better for UMass as they travel to BYU for a Tuesday scrap at the Marriott Center at 2PM. At 6-5 UMass really needs a win.