Dec. 1, 2012

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AMHERST, Mass. - Four Miami players scored in double figures to lead the Hurricanes past the UMass basketball team 75-62 on Saturday afternoon in the Mullins Center. The Minutemen were led by Terrell Vinson's 14 points and 11 rebounds along with Chas Williams' 11 points and 10 assists. UMass struggled from the floor hitting just 18-of-63 shots, while Miami hit 25-of-52 shots.

The Minutemen fall to 3-3 overall on the season while the Hurricanes improve to 5-1 overall.

Miami was led by Reggie Johnson's 19 points and 13 rebounds. Scott Durand (15 points), Shane Larken (14 points) and Kenny Kadji (13 points) rounded out the Hurricanes top scorers.

UMass led the bulk of the first half until the final moment saw the Minutemen struggle from the floor. Miami closed the opening stanza with a 9-0 run over the final three minutes to take a 30-25 lead into halftime.

After Freddie Riley's three-pointer with 3:29 until intermission gave the Minutemen a 25-21 lead, UMass was unable to hit another field goal going 0-for-6 from the field.

Coming out of the break, the Minutemen seemed to find their offense with back-to-back lay-ups from Vinson and Cady Lalanne cut the Miami lead to one just under 90 seconds into the second half.

A Vinson free throw nearly two minutes later tied the game at 35, but the Canes managed to keep hold of a two possession lead for the next 10 minutes.

With UMass trailing 48-44, Raphiael Putney hit back-to-back three pointers around a Trey McKinney Jones to ignitethe Mullins Center crowd of 7,004. After a Miami timeout, Jesse Morgan hit a lay-up to pull UMass back within one, 51-50, with 8:29 to go.

That was as close as the Minutemen could get for the balance of the game as Miami used a 13-to-4 run over the next 3:28 to build a 64-55 lead.

A Vinson three-pointer with 2:52 left in the game gave the Minutemen a glimmer of hope, but a fastbreak dunk followed by a three-pointer from Kadji gave the Hurricanes a 10-point lead, 72-62.

The Minutemen will return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at Northeastern in historic Matthews Arena with the opening tip set for 7 PM.