March 9, 2010

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - UMass won an Atlantic 10 Tournament game for the first time since 2002 with a 59-56 triumph over Charlotte on Tuesday night at Halton Arena. The 11th-seeded Minutemen (12-19) were led by a game-high 24 points from senior Ricky Harris to top the 6th-seeded 49ers in a back and forth game that featured nine lead changes and 10 ties. UMass advances to Atlantic City and A-10 Quarterfinals to face No. 3 seed Richmond on Friday night at 9 p.m.

On a night when the shots were not falling, the Minutemen used a strong defensive effort, holding the 49ers to 35 percent shooting in the second half and 37 percent for the game. UMass shot 32 percent from the field.

With UMass leading by one, Charlotte looked to be scoring for the first time in about five minutes as Derrio Green had a breakaway but his shot was blocked by Javorn Farrell into the backboard support for a jump ball and UMass was awarded possession with 1:26 remaining. That was followed by Terrell Vinson dropping in a baby jumper with 50 seconds left for a 54-51 UMass edge. After Charlotte called timeout, the 49ers went out on to the court with six players and were called for a technical foul, Harris made both free throws and UMass went up 56-51.

A 3-pointer by Gokhan Sirin, his first points of the game, pulled Charlotte within two with 46 seconds left, but Harris hit two free throws with 20 seconds left to put UMass up four, 58-54. After a Phil Jones putback with 12 seconds left, Vinson made one of two free throws with six seconds left to make it 59-56.

UMass then fouled with four seconds left to put DiJuan Harris at the line for 1-and-1. Harris missed and the clock ran out, giving UMass the 59-56 victory.

Charlotte was led by An'Juan Wilderness' 11 points, while Jones added 10. Derrio Green, who scored 34 against UMass in their regular season meeting, was held to just two points on 1-for-7 shooting.

Charlotte used a 10-2 run to take a 47-44 lead with 12:21 left in the second as Ian Andersen canned a 3-pointer for the lead. The 49ers made the run with four subs in the game (Phil Jones, Gokhan Sirin, Charles Dewhurst and Andersen) as coach Bobby Lutz benched starters Derrio Green, Wilderness, Chris Braswell and Spears for a long period of time.

UMass took a five-point lead on back-to-back alley-oops dunks by Sean Carter with 15:15 left in the second half to make it 42-37.

Thanks to a 16-point first half by Harris, UMass led 31-29 at intermission.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gary Correia and Anthony Gurley gave UMass a 20-13 lead with 10:43 left in the first half. Harris scored UMass' first 10 points of the game, putting the Minutemen up 10-9, 6:01 into the action.