Buffalo edges UMass in overtime thriller on senior day and Final Four anniversary, 86-82

AMHERST — Up 68-66 with under a minute left in regulation, the UMass basketball team looked to put Buffalo away for a senior day win on Saturday night. The Minutemen targeted Leonardo Bettiol at the left block, knowing a double team was coming.

As expected, the Bulls swarmed the graduate, forcing him into a tough pass over multiple defenders back out to half court. Kyle Jones got to the loose ball first for Buffalo, keeping his stride going all the way and flushing a dunk to knot the game up at 68-68.

On the following possession, Bettiol again received the ball in the post, this time at the left elbow. As his drive toward the hoop was stopped, he started to run out of options once again.

The clock ticked under 15 seconds, with Danny Carbuccia receiving the ball at the right wing and immediately driving toward the hoop. With the paint clogged by a mix of blue and white jerseys, the freshman’s layup attempt was promptly rejected by Tim Oboh.

As the ball fell loose to the ground, the Bulls dove on the hardwood, controlling the rebound and calling a quick timeout. The team’s last-second shot attempt came in the form of a driving layup at the rim, just barely missing the bottom of the net.

“The bottom line is the ball fell down on the ground,” Martin said. “Our guys were right there. We stood and looked at the ball; [Buffalo’s] guy went after the ball. It [was] our possession. Get on the ball, fight for the ball.”

“Now if we get the possession, we keep the ball, we run a baseline out, maybe we win, maybe we don’t, I don’t know,” Martin continued. “But instead, we just stood there and watched [the Bulls] guy get on the ball. That’s a guy playing harder than we did, and that was a consistent theme all night.”

In the overtime period, the Minutemen tallied the first point before quickly falling behind. Angelo Brizzi took over the game offensively for Buffalo, tallying 10 of his career-high 27 points in the five minutes of extra time.

Marcus Banks Jr. did his best to help UMass erase what became a seven-point deficit in overtime, hitting a pair of contested 3-pointers down the stretch. With his team down 84-81 with under 10 seconds to play, the graduate got two open looks from the left wing, with each one clanking off the rim.

The Bulls finally corralled a rebound after a missed free-throw from Daniel Hankins-Sanford, nailing a pair of attempts of their own from the charity stripe to win the game 86-82. Despite leading the contest for 27:45 of the 40 regulation minutes, the Minutemen’s late-game struggles proved to make all the difference.

“We got outplayed,” Martin said. “[Buffalo] played harder than we did, and my number one responsibility as a coach is to make sure that there’s a sound scheme and that guys play hard. And obviously, up until [Saturday], I thought we’ve tried to play hard, but we got outplayed.”

Banks Jr. finished his night with 24 points for UMass in the loss, dealing with foul trouble throughout. The Bulls did well to target the Minutemen’s key players on the offensive end, giving each of UMass’ top four scorers on the season four or more fouls by the end of the night.

Bettiol was another casualty of the foul trouble on Saturday, finishing with 21 points despite earning his fourth foul with 11 minutes to play in the second half.

“You can’t take back any fouls that you have, but you can control how you play going forward,” Banks Jr. said. “… It’s a thought in the back of the head, but not too much thinking about, ‘Oh, I can’t foul, because then I’m playing passive on defense.'”

The Minutemen struggled with turnovers at the point guard position as well against Buffalo, with both Carbuccia and K’Jei Parker each tallying four turnovers in the loss.

When UMass made mistakes down the stretch, the Bulls did well to capitalize, especially from beyond the 3-point line. Buffalo went 12-of-24 from deep on the night, having tons of success with on-ball screens and drive-and-kick opportunities.

“We have not gotten an iota better defensively,” Martin said of his team over the course of this season. “… Even our team last year, that was dysfunctional, defended. It’s disappointing.”

Despite the loss, Saturday night’s game still had an obvious bright spot for the Minutemen. At halftime, the Mullins Center crowd made sure to stay in their seats for a presentation honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1995-96 UMass Final Four team.

Eight players from the historic team were in attendance, including that season’s AP National Player of the Year, Marcus Camby. Former head coach John Calipari and assistant coach Bruiser Flint also recorded a video that was played on the jumbotron to cap off the festivities.

After Saturday night’s heartbreaker, the Minutemen will be intent on getting back in the win column. With just three games left in the regular season, UMass is currently slotted as the eighth seed in the Mid-American Conference with a 6-9 record against MAC opponents.

Only the top eight teams make the MAC Tournament at the end of the year, meaning the Minutemen have very little margin of error down the stretch if they want to play in Cleveland come March. Their next game comes on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m., on the road against Ball State.

“We just have to make the tournament,” Bettiol said. “That’s the main goal, of course. Have your head on to the next game. Take every single opportunity we have to play a game, and be 1-0 at the end of the opportunity. Then, once we’re going to be in Cleveland, it just takes three games. Anybody can win it.”