t has come down to the wire for the Massachusetts men’s basketball team.

The Minutemen hope to regroup from a disheartening 87-86 loss to George Washington on Tuesday night in preparation for their final regular season game against St. Bonaventure tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Reilly Center.

It’s more than just looking to stop a two-game losing streak that began with a 72-54 loss the Temple on Saturday. It’s more than just trying to capture their tenth conference win, a standard they have met 10 of the past 11 years. It’s more than just finishing up strong.

UMass stand at 15-13, and 9-6 in the Atlantic 10. The Bonnies hold still at 18-8 and 10-5 in conference play. After being tied for second place in the A-10 East behind Temple (22-5, 13-2 A-10) up until the beginning of this week, the New York squad pulled ahead by one game.

What’s the big deal?

The first and second seeds in both the East and the West earn a bye in next week’s A-10 Tournament in Philadelphia, Pa. If the Bonnies successfully break down the Minutemen, they will take home the free pass and will not compete until the final quarterfinal game on Mar. 9 against the winner of the Xavier-Rhode Island game. The Minutemen would play in the first round on Mar. 8 against the sixth seed from the West Division, being either Duquesne or LaSalle. If UMass win, the two teams will be tied for second. The tiebreaker comes down to how each squad did against A-10 teams in the East. The Minutemen would automatically claim the bye because they are 7-3 compared to the Bonnies’ 6-4 finish.

"It’s their senior night and this is a team that has pretty much grown together," said UMass coach James "Bruiser" Flint. "And growing together makes a team successful they’re going to be ready for this one."

Earlier on Jan. 6, the Minutemen collapsed 70-60 to St. Bonaventure at the William D. Mullins Center when Caswell Cyrus tallied a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds while Monty Mack led the home team with 19 points in the loss. In the first half, UMass netted just one field goal in the final nine and a half minutes in the first half to trail 39-21. The Bonnies were in the midst of winning seven of their last eight games. They have since dropped off their pace, going 7-6 in the latter half of the season.

"They’ve got a lot of young guys they depend on who I think, as the season goes on, they’ll get tired, they’ll make the same type of plays," said Flint.

Mack, who is second in the A-10 in scoring with 19.4 ppg, has been the point on the arrow for the Minutemen, leading the team in scoring the past 15 of 20 games while touching double figures in 25 of his 27 games this season. Throughout the year he has been joined by Chris Kirkland (15.3 ppg) and Shannon Crooks (11.7 ppg) to head up the offensive end of UMass. Starting center Kitwana Rhymer will need to reach his season averages of 7.3 ppg and rebounds per game to even out the scoring wave from the backcourt.

Freshman Micah Brand could be the deciding factor for UMass coming off the bench. The center hoisted his team past Rhode Island last week when he punched in a career-high 14 points.

"It’s one of those games for all the marbles," said Flint. "You’re going to be into it."

LEAN, N.Y. — Second place. A bye in the first round of next week's Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. Perhaps a coach's job.

For the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team, there's quite a bit on the line in tonight's 29th and final regular-season game of the 1999-2000 season. In fact, the 7:30 game against St. Bonaventure may go as far as determining how this season is remembered as the 28 games that preceded it.

With a victory at the Reilly Center, UMass (15-13, 9-6 Atlantic 10) will finish second in the East Division, the best showing of coach Bruiser Flint's four-year career. To date, this season's best victory has come against Villanova, an NCAA bubble team — but winning at St. Bonaventure (18-8, 10-5), which is 10-2 at home and retains NCAA tournament hopes, would eclipse it.

With a UMass win, the teams will finish tied and will have split the season series, the first tiebreaker in determining second place. UMass would then get the bye by virtue of a better record within the East Division.

A win would also strengthen the Minutemen's precarious NIT hopes. That seems like a meager consolation prize to many fans, but at least, as point guard Shannon Crooks put it, "it would be farther than we went last year," when UMass missed postseason play altogether.

If the Minutemen get shut out again, Flint's job is believed to be in question. UMass could make the NIT without winning tonight, but from Flint's standpoint, it's clear that every win would help.

If UMass wins tonight, it will play an A-10 tournament quarterfinal Thursday night (9:30) against either Xavier or Rhode Island at the Philadelphia Spectrum.

With a loss, the Minutemen will play the loser of today's La Salle-Duquesne regular-season finale in a Wednesday first-round game at 2 p.m. The winner would meet George Washington in Thursday's 2:30 quarterfinal, possibly giving UMass a chance to avenge Tuesday's 87-86 loss at the Mullins Center.

That was a game the Minutemen seemed to have won, but tossed away with poor shot selection, a missed dunk by Crooks, and other key mistakes during a 16-8 GW run over the final 5:31.

UMass is without center Micah Brand tonight. The 6-foot-11 freshman stayed home with pneumonia, and his status for the Atlantic 10 tournament is uncertain.

That leaves 6-10 senior Anthony Oates, who has played only 112 minutes this season, as the only true backup to starting center Kitwana Rhymer. Brand has played 373 minutes and unlike Oates, has been part of the regular playing rotation.

As much as the odds seem stacked against UMass tonight, senior forward Chris Kirkland is still hoping for some late-season magic.

"We're playing to get into the NCAA tournament," said Kirkland, aware that to get there, UMass must now win the Atlantic 10 tournament and the automatic NCAA berth. "But if it's the NIT, so be it."

Yet even the NIT is hardly assured. To qualify, a team must finish at least .500, which the Minutemen have clinched. They can finish no worse than 15-15, although one win came against a Division II team, the American University of Puerto Rico.

"We'd count that one, but we'd also look at it," NIT director Jack Powers said. And finishing 15-15, 16-14 or 16-15, which are all possible, simply makes UMass eligible. It does not assure the Minutemen will be picked.

Of more immediate concern is getting the A-10 tournament bye. No team has ever been able to win four games in four days to capture the tournament.

LLEGANY, N.Y. - The fact is a simple one. Since the Atlantic 10 expanded to 12 teams for the 1995-96 season, no school has captured the conference tournament without securing a first-round bye that comes with finishing first or second in each division.

Of the four byes available, three are wrapped up. Temple ran away with first place in the A-10 East, while Dayton and George Washington sewed up first and second respectively in the West last week, leaving just one first-round free pass to be awarded in the regular season's final weekend. The University of Massachusetts and St. Bonaventure will tip-off at 7:30 Saturday for that final bye.

The Bonnies (10-5 A-10) lead the Minutemen (9-6) by one game in the race for the bye, but if UMass defeats St. Bonaventure Saturday, the visitors would hold the applicable tie-breaker, which would be record within their own division.

"The opportunity is still there," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. "We didn't throw it all away Tuesday night (in the loss to George Washington). It was coming down to this anyway. I think we'll be ready and I think we'll play to the best of our ability."

The game has generated significant interest around St. Bonaventure and in nearby Olean. The Reilly Center has been sold out for two weeks. SBU students are coming back from spring break, but dormitories were opened a day earlier than normal to allow students to go to the senior night game. The usually rowdy Bona crowd earned national attention for an incident when Temple coach John Chaney was hit with a cookie thrown from the stands. Flint said his players will be prepared.

"Most of our guys have played in front of their fans before," Flint said. "Although I hear the fans haven't been as nutty since the Temple game."

After a fast start, the Bonnies are only 6-6 in their last 12 games, but they appear to have pulled out of their mini-slump, winning four of their last five including a 65-64 win over Xavier on Wednesday. At 18-8, St. Bonaventure could play themselves into an NCAA at-large bid with a win Saturday and a strong Atlantic 10 Tournament. SBU hasn't been to the Big Dance since 1978.

The Minutemen would need to win the Atlantic 10 tourney to get into the NCAA field, but a win Saturday would go a long way in solidifying UMass' status as an National Invitation Tournament team.

UMass' task will be tougher as freshman center Micah Brand didn't make the trip after being diagnosed with pneumonia. How long he'll be sidelined has yet to be determined, but the Minutemen hope to have him back in action for the A-10 tourney.

His absence will increase the importance of starting center Kitwana Rhymer staying out of foul trouble, especially against SBU's sizable frontline.

"We just told Kit no stupid fouls," Flint said. "It also hurts because we've played Kit and Micah together and moved Chris Kirkland over to the three. But that option is out."

Senior Anthony Oates moved to second on the depth chart, with 6-foot-8 forward Ronell Blizzard serving as the emergency third center.

"I hope we don't have to get to that point," Flint said.

Neither Minuteman pivotman was effective when St. Bonaventure defeated the Minutemen 70-60 at the Mullins Center on Jan. 6. Rhymer fouled out with just one point, while Brand had three points and five boards in 11 minutes. The Bonnies took advantage of their inside advantage as center Caswell Cyrus had 22 points and 11 rebounds, while power forward Peter Van Paassen had 17 points and nine boards.

"I'll take up the challenge," Rhymer said. "We made mistakes last time. We have to cut that down. We're not going to back down. We're going to keep coming at them."

While the duo underneath has been effective, the leading scorer is point guard Tim Winn at 13.6 points per game. According to Bona coach Jim Baron, his scoring numbers are only part of the package.

"He's a great leader on the floor for us," Baron said. "He's an excellent defender and he makes everybody else better."

Flint expects his Minutemen to have a better showing Saturday than they did in January.

"We're so much better than we were," Flint said. "We were bad in that game. We didn't take care of the ball."

That game appeared headed for a blowout, before UMass began pressing to fight its way back in. Flint said his team would likely use that tactic again.

"We played with intensity for 10 minutes and we got back into it," Flint said. "We're going to press a little bit. We worked on it (Thursday). We'll press and maybe double-team a little in the post."