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UMass Jumps Out Early to Defeat Men's Basketball
58
Canisius CAN 4-4
75
Winner Massachusetts UMASS 6-4
Canisius CAN
4-4
58
Final
75
Massachusetts UMASS
6-4
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Canisius CAN 21 37 58
Massachusetts UMASS 46 29 75

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Canisius College Athletics

UMass Jumps Out Early to Defeat Men's Basketball

AMHERST, Mass. -- The host UMass Minutemen shot 65.4 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from 3-point land in the game's first half and never allowed Canisius to get any closer than 11 points in the second half en route to a 75-58 victory Saturday afternoon in non-conference action in the Mullins Center. The win ended UMass' three-game skid and improved the team to 6-4, while the Golden Griffins saw their two-game winning streak come to an end as their record move to 4-4 on the year.

After Canisius scored the game's first bucket 19 seconds into the contest, UMass outscored Canisius 21-4 over the game's next 8:18 to take a 21-6 lead with 10:26 left before the halftime break. The Minutemen led by as many as 27 points just 56 seconds into the second half before the Griffs fought back, and a lay-up from sophomore Phil Valenti with 10:02 left in the game made the score 55-43 in favor of UMass. The Minutemen stretched their hold back to 16 points at 64-48 with 6:16 left in the game after senior center Cady Lalanne made a pair of free-throws, but five-straight points from Canisius sophomore Zach Lewis put Canisius within 11 points at 64-53 with 5:03 left on the clock. That was as close as the Griffs would get in the contest, as UMass closed out the game's final 5:00 by going 4-for-6 from the free-throw line to seal the victory.

Redshirt-senior Maxie Esho led all scorers in the win for UMass, as he posted 20 points to go with nine rebounds. He ended the game by going 7-for-9 from the field and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Lalanne chipped in 16 points and eight boards and teammate Derrick Gordon scored 11 points with eight rebounds and five assists for the Minutemen, who ended the contest with 22 assists on 25 made field goals.

For Canisius, Lewis led all scorers with his 13 points, seven of which came in the game's second half. Senior Josiah Heath posted 10 points, his fourth-straight game in double-figures, while fellow senior Jeremiah Williams scored eight points off the bench in 15 minutes of play. UMass out rebounded Canisius by a 38-28 clip and the Minutemen out scored the Blue and Gold 34-22 in the paint.

"Give [UMass] credit, that's a big, physical team and they played hard from the tip," Canisius head coach Jim Baron said. "I thought in the second half, we played hard and we ran our offense to score, but we could never get over the hump. We got within 11 points and we came up empty. We need guys to start stepping up. We talk about being young, but we're eight games in now. We need to be ready to take advantage when the other team presents us with opportunities to get back into the game, no matter what the score is."

Canisius will return to action Thurday, Dec. 18, when the Griffs play host to Stony Brook in the Koessler Athletic Center. That game will be televised live throughout New York State on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.

Game Notes: This was the third all-time meeting between the two schools and it was the first since Jan. 26, 1963... UMass now leads the series 2-1, winning both games in Amherst, Mass... Canisius held UMass to just eight second-half field goals in the loss... Junior Jamal Reynolds had a team-high seven rebounds for Canisius... Valenti had five assists for the Griffs, a new career-high for the sophomore forward... Heath's three steals matches his career high, previously set Jan. 7, 2013 at Loyola (Md.)... Lewis saw his nine-game streak of having at least one steal in a game come to an end... Williams has at least one make from 3-point land in five of the team's last six contests.
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