Feb. 7, 2008

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AMHERST, Mass. - The trio of Gary Forbes, Chris Lowe and Etienne Brower led UMass to a huge Atlantic 10 victory at the Mullins Center, 78-76, over Rhode Island on Thursday night. Forbes and Brower each posted double-doubles as Forbes had 26 points and 13 rebounds while Brower had 10 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. Chris Lowe tied his career-high with 23 points while handing out six assists.

UMass moves to 15-7 overall and evens its league mark at 4-4. Rhode Island dropped its fourth game overall to stand at 19-4 and is now 5-3 in the A-10.

Will Daniels led the Rams with 19 points. Daniels also had 13 rebounds for a double-double. Parfait Bitee had 17 for URI.

URI's Keith Cothran missed a runner in the lane with 10 seconds remaining as Forbes grabbed his 13th rebound. Forbes proceeded to make one-of-two free throws to give the Minutemen a 78-74 and ice the win. Daniels added a lay-up with eight-tenths of the second for the game's final 78-76.

Daniels jumper in the lane with 26 seconds brought URI within three at 77-74.

Ricky Harris made one-of-two free throws with 45 seconds left to give UMass a 77-72 lead.

Harris' 3-pointer with just under thee minutes gave UMass a 76-67 lead, but Will Daniels answered with his own trey to cut the lead back to 76-70.

Forbes long-range 3-pointer game UMass a 67-60 lead with 7:36 left and that was followed a sensation lay-up by Lowe to make it 69-60 with 6:30 left.

Back-to-back 3-point plays on driving lay-ups and good free throws by Gary Forbes and Chris Lowe gave UMass back the lead at 60-55 with 10:15 left in the game.

Rhode Island took its first lead of the game as Joe Mbang scored on a putback lay-up with 11 minutes left in regulation to give the Rams a 55-54 lead

Forbes was all over the court in the first half, taking 17 shots and finishing with 13 points to lead all players the Minutemen led 39-34 at halftime.

Ricky Harris broke out of a shooting slump as he hit two 3-pointers after missing 15 in a row over three games, to give UMass at 39-30 lead with 2:41 left in the first half.

UMass jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led by as many as 10 in the first half at 17-7 with 13:34 left on the first half. Rhode Island missed nine of its first 10 shots.

The Minutemen travel to Temple on Sunday for a 2 p.m. start in Philadelphia.