Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Cady Lalanne’s 23 points, 16 rebounds helps UMass stave off Manhattan in overtime

Manhattan Massachusetts Basketball

AP

AP

A violation led to a fortunate series of events for Manhattan with 5.1 seconds to play, trailing UMass 61-59 on Tuesday afternoon. Tyler Wilson attempted to miss his second free throw so the Jaspers could get an offensive rebound. Instead he missed the rim, a violation, giving UMass the ball, which almost secured the victory for the Minutemen.

Almost.

The unintended consequence of the violation was that Seth Berger, the in-bounder for UMass, could not run along the baseline as he would if Wilson made the free throw. The result was a missed an errant pass of Trey Davis’ fingers, which set up this.

Manhattan went into overtime with the momentum, and UMass was down ultra-athlete Maxie Esho, who fouled out with 1:47 remaining in regulation. However, like LSU and Harvard in previous years, the Jaspers left Amherst, Massachusetts with a loss, as UMass held on to a 77-68 win to win its third consecutive game in the 11 a.m. time slot of the 24-hour tipoff marathon.

UMass (3-0) never trailed in overtime, as Cady Lalanne’s up-fake gave him an uncontested layup to break a 63-63 tie with 3:30 left. Berger tipped in a Lalanne miss the next time down the floor, making it a two-possession game. From there, it was a free throw contest for the Minutemen, converting all 10 to ice the win.

Lalanne finished with a game-high 23 points and 16 rebounds.

UMass and Manhattan (0-2) entered halftime knotted at 28, but the Japsers held a five-point edge more than midway through the second half. This proved to be the turning point, as the Minutemen began to solve Manhattan’s 2-3 zone, getting the ball inside to Lalanne. This became a point of emphasis for UMass, as the 6-foot-10 Lalanne is arguably the best big man in the Atlantic 10, and Manhattan is still adjusting to a new interior with Rhamel Brown, three-time MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, graduating last spring.
RELATED: Must-watch video of Rich Williams’ buzzer-beating dunk to force overtime

The UMass run started when Jabarie Hinds beat the press up the middle of the floor, ran a hand-off with Derrick Gordon, who lobbed up one of his eight assists. The Gordon-Lalanne alley-oop energized the Mullins Center crowd, and after a defensive stop, Esho, UMass’ other forward, drove by his defender before the defense set up to cut the lead to one. After a Donovan Kates, UMass was patient getting the ball to Lalanne, who was being fronted, for an uncontested dunk, followed two possessions later when an offensive rebound for Lalanne resulted in two free throws, tying the score 51-51.

Ashton Pankey would respond for Manhattan with four straight points, and the two teams would trade the lead back-and-forth three more times until Lalanne connected on four-straight free throws with 30 seconds to go, the latter pair giving UMass what looked like a 61-59 win until the wild finish.

Emmy Andujar went for 21 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Five Minutemen scored in double figures -- Trey Davis (14), Esho (12), Gordon (12) and Hinds (10) -- behind Lalanne’s third double-double in as many games.

Manhattan looks to pick up its first win of the season against a young Binghamton team on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.. UMass will face its toughest opponent to date in Notre Dame at noon on Saturday. Both of those games, like Tuesday’s contest, are part of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament, and will be played at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Follow @terrence_payne