PROVIDENCE ‒ Brown couldn’t sustain what was a solid first half against Massachusetts in its men’s basketball exhibition opener.
The Minutemen sizzled from the field over the final 20 minutes, particularly from 3-point range. The Bears ultimately lost contact at Pizzitola Center, suffering a 92-74 defeat on Sunday, Oct. 9.
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Brown carried a five-point advantage into the locker room that was quickly wiped out by a perimeter shooting barrage from UMass. Marcus Banks Jr. was a perfect 7-for-7 from deep and helped key a 26-9 surge through the opening seven minutes. Danny Carbuccia’s 3-pointer with 13:03 left pushed the Minutemen into a double-digit lead at 59-47 and the Bears were left chasing from there.
Landon Lewis, left, shown in action last season, left Sunday’s preseason matchup against UMass with an apparent ankle injury.
It was a different story early. Brown shot 15-for-29 from the field and doubled up UMass on points off turnovers, 12-6, to build a 38-33 lead into the break. The Bears went with an experienced starting five of Adrian Uchidiuno, Malcolm Wrsiby-Jefferson, Luke Paragon, Landon Lewis and N’famara Dabo. Jeremiah Jenkins, David Rochester, Wyatt DeGraff and newcomers Brady Loughlin and Isaiah Langham all played at least eight minutes off the bench.
Dabo played a game-high 29 minutes for Brown, one of five Bears to log at least 20. Lewis (right ankle) and Rochester (quadriceps contusion) both left the game before the close and did not return. AJ Lesburt (left foot) and Jerrell Barron Jr. (undisclosed) did not dress.
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Brown coach Mike Martin conducted a postgame press conference in person just off the floor. Here’s what he had to say.
Mike Martin’s opening statement
Obviously our offense didn’t help our defense. They got some easy ones. First possession of the second half we had a decent possession and then they hit a late-clock three off an offensive rebound or a tip out or a loose ball – whatever it was. Then they had a four-point play off a loose ball where we had the turnover.
Obviously there was not a lot of defending going on in the second half. I was encouraged by some of what I saw in the first half in terms of our defense, defense leading to offense, how we shared the ball. This is why we do things like this – to play against a team that’s well-coached, that’s physical, that’s going to challenge you at both ends.
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Obviously we’ve got a couple new guys playing and we’ve got some older guys who are playing more than they normally do or normally have in the past. Here obviously we’ve learned we need all five of us to be on the same page and play with unbelievable effort and physicality. When we did that I thought we did some good things. Their pressure obviously took us out of a lot of what we were trying to do offensively.
On some postgame areas of focus
It’s hard to say I’m not concerned with defense when you give up 59 (points) in the second half. I would say both ends are a focus for us. I was encouraged by what Adrian did. He’s been doing that all year in practice. But it’s to go from practice to the games, it doesn’t always translate – especially when you haven’t played a ton. We expect him to have a breakout year. We expect him to do those kinds of things.
I think our two freshmen guards both probably played with some nerves. Brady made a few shots today, but he can shoot it even better than he did today. Isaiah, it’s just going to be a matter of getting comfortable.
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Certainly we have experience and depth in the frontcourt – at least we think. Then all of a sudden David’s out, Landon’s out and I’m looking. We’ve really practiced playing big – with two bigs – all year because we think all four of those guys can rotate in the way we did in the first half. Then in the second half without Landon and without David it was different.
We had a long day with these guys, UMass, and we’ll learn a lot from everything we did in our shootaround and moving into the game.
On injuries suffered by Landon Lewis and David Rochester
(Lewis) went to drive it, he got fouled and I think he either stepped on a guy’s ankle or – some kind of ankle injury. Knock on wood I think that’s fairly positive.
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(Rochester has a) quad contusion. Knock on wood I think those should be things we come back from.
On another exhibition game this preseason
We have a closed one next week – the Boston College Eagles.
On AJ Lesburt and his injury
He had surgery. He’ll see a doctor again soon. We expect him to be cleared in plenty of time. Not for our first game – he’s going to miss a few games. But he should be cleared well in advance of the holidays.
On the starting five
That’s probably our most experienced group – the four juniors and one senior – given what we have right now. Our sophomore class, as you saw, have all taken steps forward – (Jenkins), David and Wyatt. Then our two freshmen are going to be good, too – Isaiah and Brady. But we went with our most experienced group. We’ve tried different combinations throughout the fall and we’ll continue to do that.
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On facing a physical team like UMass
I think that’s what we want to be. That’s who we are especially in our league – physical. We build our team with defense and rebounding. When you see it from someone else it brings out the best in you.
Everything we do offensively, if it’s not really strong and tough and with purpose – their physicality is going to take you off your spot. It’s going to bump you off your cut. I thought all game we had a hard time initiating offense close enough to the basket.
We’ve got to be able to do a better job helping our guards get the offense deeper. For example, ball screen coverage, ball screen defense, how they guarded ball screens – it’s not how we guard ball screens. It’s good for us to see that. Now we’ll have more stuff on film and more things to work on when we play against that kind of ball screen defense next time.
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MASSACHUSETTS (92): Daniel Hankins-Sanford 4-7 3-4 12, Jayden Ndjigue 2-4 0-0 4, Marcus Banks Jr. 7-9 3-3 24, Leonardo Bettiol 5-11 0-0 10, K’Jei Parker 4-8 0-1 10, Danny Carbuccia 4-9 0-0 10, Donovan Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Luka Damjanac 1-1 0-0 2, Dwayne Wimbley Jr. 2-4 0-1 5, Charles Outlaw 0-0 0-0 0, Dimitri Clerc 3-7 0-0 6, Isaiah Placide 2-2 0-0 5, Rollie Castineyra 1-2 0-0 2, Bilal Osman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 36-68 6-9 92.
BROWN (74): Malcolm Wrisby-Jefferson 2-7 0-2 4, Luke Paragon 1-2 0-0 3, Landon Lewis 4-5 0-1 8, N’famara Dabo 5-6 3-5 13, Adrian Uchidiuno 5-10 2-2 16, Isaiah Langham 2-5 0-1 4, Jeremiah Jenkins 2-7 2-4 8, David Rochester 0-3 1-2 1, Brady Loughlin 3-8 0-0 9, Drew Kania 0-0 1-2 1, Charlie O’Sullivan 0-0 0-0 0, Jonah Drezner 1-1 0-0 3, Wyatt DeGraaf 2-4 0-2 4. Totals 27-58 9-21 74.
Halftime – B, 38-33. 3-point FG – M 14-27 (Hankins-Sanford 1-3, Banks 7-7, Bettiol 0-1, Parker 2-4, Carbuccia 2-5, Brown 0-1, Wimbley 1-3, Placide 1-1, Castineyra 0-1, Osman 0-1), B 11-27 (Wrisby-Jefferson 0-1, Paragon 1-2, Uchidiuno 4-8, Langham 0-2, Jenkins 2-3, Rochester 0-3, Loughlin 3-7, Drezner 1-1). Rebounds – M 34 (Damjanac 5, Bettiol 4, Parker 4), B 36 (Dabo 8, Uchidiuno 6, Wrisby-Jefferson 5). Assists – M 20 (Carbuccia 5), B 19 (Jenkins 7). Steals – M 7 (Banks 2, Parker 2), B 8 (Dabo 2, Jenkins 2). Turnovers – M 10 (Hankins-Sanford 2, Outlaw 2, Clerc 2), B 15 (Uchidiuno 3).
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: UMass beats Brown basketball 92-74 in exhibition opener on October 19
