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Tom Archdeacon: UMass has the answer for Roberts
Thursday, January 17, 2008
With Massachusetts double- and triple-teaming him every time he got the ball, Brian Roberts had trouble just getting a shot off Wednesday night.
But afterward — with the pressure finally off and the game lost — the Dayton Flyers' star guard finally saw an opening, and this time his aim was true:
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"Maybe we got a little bit exposed tonight. Every time I got to half court and tried to make a move, there were two and three maroon jerseys sitting in front of me. It seemed like they were everywhere.
"That's when we needed some guys to make plays. Sometimes that worked, but more times it didn't. We needed that production and for the most part, it kind of let us down."
Except for two players — Marcus Johnson had 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Charles Little added 13 points — the Flyers got almost nothing from several veterans.
UMass beat the Flyers, 82-71, at UD Arena. The loss — Dayton's first in two months — snapped a 13-game winning streak, the program's longest in 40 years. And it came just two days after they had clawed their way up to No. 14 in the AP poll.
It's been a long time since a game at UD Arena ended like this — with many in the home crowd tromping to the exits with a few minutes left, hoping to at least beat the traffic if they couldn't beat the Minutemen.
"We love this kind of big-time environment," UMass center Dante Milligan said. "We played at Syracuse, played at Vanderbilt, all the big-time schools. We use the crowd's energy in our favor as opposed to them intimidating us."
It worked this night because UMass had the perfect game plan and seemed to play with more intensity.
"The key for us tonight was to keep our composure and obviously we didn't," said senior guard Jimmy Binnie, who missed all six of his shots from the floor.
Flyers guard Mickey Perry agreed:
"With what they were doing to B-Rob, the rest of us had to answer the bell, and for the most part, we didn't. I didn't. No excuses. We just didn't step up."
That's true, but give credit to UMass. They very well could be the best team UD has played this season. The Minutemen had beaten Syracuse and Boston College on the road. They're battle-tested, they had quality players and they figured out a way to dismantle Dayton.
"We usually press all 40 minutes," said UMass coach Travis Ford. "This was the first time all year we didn't, but we didn't want to lose Roberts in the open court.
"Our plan was to try to stop him every time down the court, just stay on him, fatigue him and force somebody else to beat us. That's not saying I wasn't scared to death some of their other guys were going to beat us. We're just fortunate they didn't make some shots."
Andres Sandoval was 0-for-2 from the floor. Perry made 3-of-10 shots, and post players Kurt Huelsman and Thiago Cordeiro combined for just two field goals. Although Roberts finished with 21 points, he had just two at the half.
"He's what makes their team go, and if you stop him you've got a good chance for success against them," Milligan said. "We left it up to their role players and ... they didn't quite do a good enough job."
Turns out Milligan's postgame aim was true as well.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or tarchdeacon@DaytonDailyNews.com.
