Bryant's postseason path might have just gotten rockier — what happened vs. UMass Lowell
SMITHFIELD — Bryant will make a trip to UMass Lowell just shy of two weeks from now. It might not be the last one the Bulldogs take this year.
The River Hawks gained the inside track on the No. 2 seed in the upcoming America East men’s basketball postseason thanks to Saturday’s result at Chace Athletic Center. The visitors found the winning combination in crunch time to stop Bryant in its tracks.
Ayinde Hikim’s tough layup and assist to Max Brooks helped spread out a one-point edge. UMass Lowell married that execution with defensive stops, and the Bulldogs found themselves on the wrong end of an 86-77 final.
Bryant enjoyed a seven-point advantage early in the second half, but the River Hawks never trailed over the final 3:33. Yuri Covington’s three-point play on a physical drive along the right baseline gave UMass Lowell a 73-71 lead, and all the Bulldogs could manage from there was a pair of ties. Brayden O’Connor dropped home a pair of free throws with 2:13 left to put the visitors ahead to stay.
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“Us making runs, them making runs — just that back and forth that you get with two good, older teams,” Bryant coach Phil Martelli Jr. said. “Our discipline lacked just a little bit. Across the board, myself included, we just let a couple of things slip.”
Earl Timberlake’s layup in the right post with 1:28 left accounted for Bryant’s last points of the day. Hikim’s drive down the left and bank shot off the glass with 58.2 seconds to play opened up what was a 78-77 game. Max Brooks came up with a clean block on a Sherif Gross-Bullock layup at the rim and cashed in a tight pass in the paint from Hikim to create a two-possession gap.
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“One play here, one play there — it's February,” Martelli said. “Really, it’s March basketball at this point. You’ve got to be able to bounce from one play to the next and make the right play. For long stretches we did, and then we let a couple slip away there.”
Connor Withers nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner with 15:50 left and celebrated with the Bulldogs bench. Bryant was out to a 50-43 cushion and seemed poised to build from there. The River Hawks hit back behind Covington, who capped a 5-for-5 start to the half with a stepback 3-pointer from the right corner that snapped a 60-60 tie.
“He’s a super confident guy,” Martelli said. “We said it in the scouting report — he's a guy who has not shot the ball well. But especially in a game like that, you can throw that out the window.”
The first half played out in similar fashion. The Bulldogs used a Rafael Pinzon layup to finish a 14-2 run and took a 22-16 lead with 8:38 left. UMass Lowell jumped back in front into the locker room thanks to a late 7-0 push of its own, with Hikim’s bucket at the rim staking the visitors to a 39-37 advantage.
“They make a run, we make a run — you knew it was going to swing its way back at some point,” Martelli said. “That was definitely the message.”
Covington finished with 17 of his game-high 27 points in the final 20 minutes and Hikim added 21. The River Hawks (17-7, 8-3 America East) came off a bye week and a stretch where they’d dropped three of their last five league games — this was a perfect turning point. Quinton Mincey added nine points and 11 rebounds for the winners.
“We just needed a little more resistance on the ball,” Martelli said. “A couple of those drives, we could have been a little more physical on the ball. Not let them get into the lane and to the rim.”
Timberlake led Bryant (17-10, 9-3) with 22 points while Gross-Bullock added 20. The Bulldogs could have opened a lead on UMass Lowell and kept pace with Vermont for a potential No. 1 seed in the league tournament, which starts with home quarterfinals in early March. Now Bryant will be tasked with visiting the Catamounts and River Hawks in their next two games — it's as tough a road swing as you can find in the league.
“We’ll kind of decompress from this one and get ready for Vermont,” Martelli said. “That will be the focus.”
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UMASS.-LOWELL (86): Brooks 4-8 1-2 9, Morris 2-9 4-5 8, Covington 9-15 5-6 27, Hikim 9-16 2-4 21, O'Connor 3-6 4-6 12, Mincey 2-8 5-6 9, Fulgencio 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 29-62 21-29 86.
BRYANT (77): Brelsford 1-2 3-3 6, Edert 2-7 2-2 6, Gross-Bullock 5-15 8-10 20, Timberlake 8-11 6-6 22, Rivera 3-9 1-3 7, Withers 2-4 0-0 5, Pinzon 4-13 2-2 11. Totals: 25-61 22-26 77.
Halftime — Mass.-Lowell 39-37. 3-Point Goals_Mass.-Lowell 7-16 (Covington 4-5, O'Connor 2-3, Hikim 1-4, Morris 0-1, Mincey 0-3), Bryant 5-20 (Gross-Bullock 2-7, Brelsford 1-2, Withers 1-3, Pinzon 1-4, Edert 0-4). Fouled out — Morris, Rivera. Rebounds — Mass.-Lowell 36 (Mincey 11), Bryant 30 (Withers 8). Assists — Mass.-Lowell 10 (Brooks 4), Bryant 8 (Withers 3). Total fouls — Mass.-Lowell 21, Bryant 20. A — 1,022 (2,000).
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant men's basketball loses to UMass Lowell. No. 2 seed in danger.
