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UMass opens season with important win while Boston College looks for key non-conference victory

Derek Kellogg

Massachusetts head coach Derek Kellogg in action against Xavier in an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, March 2, 2013, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

AP

BOSTON – In the middle game of Sunday’s Coaches vs. Cancer tripleheader, UMass kicked off its season with a quality non-conference win over Boston College, using a second half surge to propel the Minutemen to an 86-73 victory inside the TD Garden.

“We all knew that this game hurt us or help us down the line when it came tournament time,” UMass senior Sampson Carter said.

Carter scored nine of his 12 points in the second half with the bulk of his buckets coming at crucial portion of the game for UMass. Boston College took a 45-36 lead in the opening minutes of the second half. Carter, who had missed a layup with under 30 seconds to play before halftime, scored seven straight UMass points that cut the lead to 45-41.

“It gave us a huge boost,” UMass senior guard Chaz Williams said. “He sparked the run and we all kind of finished it.”

Williams drilled a three with 13:19 left to play, which capped off a 14-3 run, that gave UMass a 50-48 lead.

Boston College came down to tie the score following a timeout, but after that UMass took command, opening the game up with a lead that got as large as 16. With the smaller BC lineup, the Minutemen dominated on the inside behind the 27-point, 12-rebound game by Cady Lalanne and demolished the Eagles on the glass with a 44-27 advantage and had more offensive rebounds (21) than BC had defensive boards (18).

“I just thought in the second half that they would make the game very simple,” Boston College head coach Steve Donahue said. “They were going to drive the ball, throw it up there, go get it and put it in the basket. They deserve all the credit.”

In Friday night’s overtime loss to Providence, Boston College was beaten on the glass 36-20.

“That’s the way you beat us,” Donahue added. “Both these halves, the second half in particular both teams [Providence and UMass] came out and said, ‘I don’t think they are tough enough to handle us on the glass.’ And that’s what they did.”

Boston College gave itself a tough out-of-conference schedule out of the gate and through two games have come up empty-handed against an up-and-coming Providence program and UMass, a team that should contend in the Atlantic 10. The non-conference slate continues to be tough for BC with games against UConn, Harvard, VCU, and potentially a game against Indiana. None of those games are at home by the way.

“The scheduling is what it is,” Donahue said. “We want to be as good as we can to be, we have to play the schedule and get better. We are going to learn from this. I have great confidence in this team.”

Due to its lineup, which starts Anderson at the five, the Eagles will not only have to tougher on the glass, but also better offensively. The offense has been dominated by Anderson and Olivier Hanlon, who both scored more than 20 on Friday and the only two in double figures on Sunday. Hanlon was hit with foul trouble in the first half and finally got in-sync late in the game though at that point the Eagles were trailing by double digits.

UMass also has a challenging non-conference schedule, and a win against the Eagles is a good start for sixth year head coach Derek Kellogg, who is looking to get his alma mater into the NCAA tournament for the first time in his tenure. Like BC did entering Sunday’s game, UMass will experience a quick turnaround, with its home opener on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m.

“We now have a tight turnaround from a team from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with LSU coming in,” Kellogg said.