February 8, 2009 by Chris Maza | A10CollegeHoops

AMHERST, Mass. – When it comes to the top teams in the Atlantic 10 conference, Massachusetts knows how to put a scare into them.

Two games after taking 10^th-ranked Xavier to the brink, the Minutemen again played a classic against one of the A-10’s best, but couldn’t put it away, falling to St. Joseph’s 68-64 at the Mullins Center Sunday afternoon.

“I think we’ve been involved in as many close games as anybody in the country right now,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said. “I give St. Joe’s credit. They’ve been in about as many or maybe even more close ones and they’ve done a good job of figuring out ways to win down the stretch, something that’s eluded us as a team right now.”

The Minutemen grabbed the lead just over 2:30 into the game and held it most of the way, but the Hawks posted a late rally, finally taking the lead for good with 2:28 remaining in the game on Ahmad Nivins’ 18-footer.

“There are a lot of guys that play this game today that think take shots, but they don’t think make shots,” St. Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli said. “The jumpers Ahmad took early, he was just taking them. The jumper he took to give us the lead, that was to make.”

The win was St. Joseph’s second straight and its ninth over its last 10 games. The Hawks’ only blemish over that stretch was a road loss to Dayton, who fell to Charlotte earlier in the day. The combination of the Hawks’ win and the Flyers’ loss moves St. Joseph’s into second place behind Xavier in the conference with a 7-1 record. They are 14-8 overall.

Massachusetts (8-13, 3-5 A-10) has now dropped four out of its last five. Three of those losses have been by five points or fewer.

St. Joseph’s played chase throughout the game, never letting it get too far away, but until the final moments, every time the Hawks got close, someone came through for the Minutemen with a big shot.

Down 53-52 with 6:58 left in the game, Idris Hilliard had a chance to tie the game up for the first time since the clock read 17:29 in the first half with a possible three point play, but missed the free throw. Garrett Williamson picked him up, though, with a layup on the Hawks’ next possession to give them their first lead since the opening minutes of the game at 54-53.

Luke Bonner took the lead right back for the Minutemen with a three-pointer, but Nivins asserted himself inside on the ensuing Hawks possession, drew a foul and sunk both shots to knot the game up at 56.

One minute later, Nivins hit a jumper from the foul line to stake the Hawks to a lead they would not relinquish.

“Ahmad has really improved because of how much work he’s put in in his face-up game,” Martelli said. “It was the end of the shot clock. It was a terrific confidence shot. I label that a confidence shot and I’m ok with that.”

In fact, Nivins’ four points in that span sparked an 11-2 run that opened up the Hawks’ largest lead of the game at nine points, 67-58, in the last minute of the game.

“It’s good to know that we can play good basketball for 38 minutes,” UMass forward Tony Gaffney said. “But if you don’t play for those last two minutes, then there’s no point in playing at all.”

Nivins completed his ninth straight double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds, despite facing constant double teams and copious attention from Gaffney, one of the conference’s top defensive players.

“What we have found over the last several games is people are not going to let him get the ball close to the basket,” Martelli said. “I’d like to put (Nivins) in the lane and throw him the ball and say, ‘Ok, go get 20 and 10 every night,’ but that’s not real against that kind of defense.”

Tasheed Carr was cold from the floor, hitting just 4-of-13 shots for 14 points and Darren Govens chipped in with 10 for the Hawks.

Ricky Harris and Anthony Gurley scored 18 apiece for the Minutemen, who failed to get major offensive contributions from Tony Gaffney (eight points) or Chris Lowe (seven points).

“We did not want to push up on them. I thought (UMass) did a fabulous job against Xavier exploiting Xavier’s overexuberence. Xavier was chasing them and Chris Lowe was penetrating the lane,” Martelli said. “We tried to back up and just keep that ball in front of us.”

Massachusetts continued to battle and Harris hit a desperation three from the top of the key with three seconds remaining to bring the score to 67-64, but Govens hit one of two free throws to make it a two possession game and put it out of reach.

The Minutemen rode a 13-3 run with threes from Gurley and Harris and an emphatic two-handed dunk by Gaffney to jump out to a 15-7 edge early in the contest.

St. Joseph’s closed the gap to two, 30-28 late in the first on a 9-4 run before the Minutemen extended their advantage back to six points with 44 seconds left on a run capped by two free throws by Harris.

A last-second three-pointer by Carr brought the Hawks back within three heading into the locker room, 37-34.

“I knew St. Joe’s was going to make a run at some point,” Harris said. “That shot gave them momentum I guess. We knew they were a battle-tested team and we knew that this game was going to be a war. They just made more plays than we did at the end.”

UMass used its speed to ignite its offense through the transition game, scoring 13 points off the break to St. Joseph’s zero in the first half. But the Hawks neutralized that in the second half, allowing just three points off the break the rest of the way.

“It’s hard to play the way I want them to play. It’s hard to pick up 94 feet, pressure the ball, be off with the ball, pass it and push it in transition,” Kellogg said. “You have to be in unbelievable shape and you have to have the desire to do that.”