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EW YORK - If Siena guard Kojo Mensah seemed like a handful Friday, wait until the University of Massachusetts gets an up close look at Keydren Clark.
Four days after the Minutemen faced one of the northeast's top mid-major guards, they'll face probably the best one when they play St. Peter's at 6:30 tonight in the first game of the Panasonic Holiday Classic at Madison Square Garden.
St. John's and Columbia meet in the 8:30 game. The losers and winners of the two games will meet each other at 6:30 and 8:30 respectively on Wednesday.
At 5-foot-10 Clark, a senior guard, doesn't look like much but he's had a career few can match.
Clark enters tonight's game with 2,424 career points easily the most among active players. He's led the nation in scoring each of the past two seasons and is trying to become just the third player in history to lead the NCAA in scoring three straight seasons, joining a club that includes only Pete Maravich and Oscar Robertson, both of whom are enshrined just off Route 91.
He's currently averaging 22.9 points, but as UMass coach Travis Ford points out, Clark is not a ballhog. He leads the team with 4.3 assists per game.
'They're very similar,' Ford said of Mensah and Clark. 'Clark probably does a little bit more. Even though he led the nation in scoring, he's a very unselfish player. He leads them in assists with double the number of anybody else. He can score in a variety of ways and has a much better jump shot than Mensah. We'll try to slow him down. I don't know if you can completely stop him, but we're going to try to slow him down.'
The Peacocks lost four games to open the season, but the defeats came mostly against big name opponents including Florida, Pittsburgh and Seton Hall.
Since then St. Peter's has bounced back with five straight victories.
'They've figured out how to win,' Ford said. 'They're a very good basketball team.'
UMass is trying to snap a six-game losing streak away from the Mullins Center. The Minutemen lost their final three road games last year including a loss to La Salle at the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Cincinnati. UMass fell at Davidson and Connecticut this year and fell to Alabama Birmingham at the Springfield Civic Center.
GRAND PURSUIT - UMass junior big man Rashaun Freeman enters the game needing just four points to become the school's 37th 1,000-point scorer. If Freeman reaches his 17 points-per-game average he'll tie Tyrone Weeks at No. 36 on the school's career scoring list with 1,013 points.
St. JOHN'S vs. COLUMBIA - Depending on tonight's results, UMass will play either St. John's or Columbia in the championship or consolation game of the tournament.
The Johnnies started the season 5-1, but have lost three straight to Virginia Tech, Marist and Duke.
Darryl Hill leads St. John's with 13.7 points per game.
Columbia could be in the mix in a wide-open Ivy league. The Lions started the season 5-0, but have lost three of four.
John Baumann leads the Lions with 14.3 points per game.
FAMILIAR FACES - UMass will face a former Minuteman assistant coach on Wednesday, but which one will depend on tonight's results. Columbia has former Steve Lappas assistant Andrew Theokas on coach Joe Jones' staff.
Jose 'Chuck' Martin, who was on Bruiser Flint's staff at UMass and Drexel, is an assistant at St. John's under Norm Roberts.
UMass has faced two other former assistants this season. Craig Carter, who was Lappas' director of basketball operations, is now an assistant at Siena.
Pat Sellers, who was an assistant under Lappas, is now the director of basketball operations at Connecticut.
MISCELLANEOUS - It's UMass' first meeting with the Peacocks since the 1995 NCAA Tournament when the Minutemen beat St. Peter's 68-51 at Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y.
Matt Vautour can be reached at [email protected]. For more UMass coverage including a frequently updated UMass sports blog, go to www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/umsports.
EW YORK - The 'World's Most Famous Arena' has produced some memorable moments for the University of Massachusetts men's basketball program.
The Minutemen are 7-11 all time at Madison Square Garden, where they'll play St. Peter's at 6:30 tonight in the Panasonic Holiday Festival.
UMass' most notable effort in MSG came on Nov. 24, 1993 in the Preseason National Invitation Tournament. On that night, the Minutemen stunned No. 1-ranked and defending national champion North Carolina, 91-86 in overtime.
A picture of Lou Roe standing on top of the scorer's table arms raised in celebration after that win hangs in offices all over UMass.
The Minutemen are 6-3 all-time in regular season games at the Garden. While they're 1-1 in the Preseason NIT, they're 1-8 in the postseason NIT.
The one win was UMass' first ever against a ranked team. The Jack Leaman-coached Minutemen upset No. 15 Missouri, 78-71, on March 17, 1973.
Al Skinner scored 14 points and grabbed six boards in the win, while Rick Pitino had eight points.
Coincidentally UMass' first ever game in the home of the NBA's Knicks and NHL's Rangers was against St. Peter's, when the Redmen beat the Peacocks, 94-74 in 1962.
The Minutemen haven't played at Madison Square Garden since 1996 when UMass defeated then-Atlantic 10 newcomer Fordham, 73-47 behind 26 points by Marcus Camby.
UMass coach Travis Ford visited the Garden as a player. He helped lead Kentucky to a win in the annual four-team December event before Panasonic was the title sponsor. In 1992, when it was still called the ECAC Holiday Festival, Ford had 10 points and 12 assists beating St. John's and Rutgers.
UMass assistant coach Steve Middleton played at MSG twice as a player, both before college.
'I was All-Brooklyn as a senior so we got to come in and watch Knicks pregame,' Middleton said. 'I met Bernard King.'
Associate head coach Tim Maloney was part of the coaching staff at Florida when the Gators beat Kansas in the 2002 Coaches vs. Cancer game.
Chris Lowe and Dante Milligan have both been on team's that played at the Garden. Lowe's Mount Vernon High School team's played there during his junior and senior seasons. Milligan was on the Pittsburgh roster during the 2004 Big East Tournament and the 2004 Coaches vs. Cancer game at the arena but didn't get into games at either time.
Matt Vautour can be reached at [email protected]. For more UMass coverage including a frequently updated UMass sports blog, go to www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/umsports.
EW YORK - Junior forward Stephane Lasme had a career-high 21 points, including 16 in the first half along with a career-high 14 rebounds and eight blocks as UMass topped St. Peter's, 66-49 in the first game of the 2005 Panasonic Holiday Festival. The Minutemen face the winner of the St. John's/Columbia game in the Championship, Wednesday at approximately 8:30 p.m. The Minutemen will be aiming for their first regular-season tournament title since the 1995 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Sophomore Rashaun Freeman scored his 1,000th career point in the first half on a basket with 8:42 left in the half and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds as he scored in double-figures for the seventh time in eight games this season. Senior Jeff Viggiano scored in double-figures for the fourth game in a row with 11 points and added 11 rebounds for his fourth career double-double. He had a career-high six blocked shots.
UMass which came into the game leading the nation in blocked shots at 8.5 per game swatted 16 in the game led by Lasme (8) and Viggiano (6). It was the most blocks since UMass had a school-record 20 vs. West Virginia on Jan. 3, 1995.
After a great end to the first half, UMass came out with fire in the second half as Brandon Thomas hit UMass' first 3-point field goal of the game after six misses in the first half. The Minutemen continued the run which finished 13-0 bridging the two halves, giving UMass a 41-31 lead early in the second half.
UMass came on strong at the end of the first half as the Minutemen closed the half on a 8-0 run over the final 4:45 to lead 36-31 at halftime. Freshman Chris Lowe had four points in the run.
Lasme and Clark dueled on the scoreboard in the first half as the UMass forward tallied 16 points while Clark had 13. The Minutemen shot 48 percent from the floor, but missed all six 3-point field goals, while the Peacocks made 5-of-12 from trifecta land on their way to 37 percent overall from the floor.
The game got off to a sluggish start where Lasme was the only UMass player producing - as he scored the first eight points for the Minutemen - and the teams were tied at 8-8 through five minutes.
UMass takes on the winner of the second game between St. John's and Columbia. The game will tip-off at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday and be televised on MSG Network (on a delayed broadcast) but live via video streaming on MSGNetwork.com, linked to UMassAthletics.com.
Jeff Viggiano floats to the goal over Kaimondre Owes.
Dante Milligan watches with glee as Stephane Lasme throws down on Todd Sowell.
Rashaun Freeman gets stripped by Sowell.
Freeman tries to get in Sowell's face.
Freeman gets bowled over by Raul Orta.
tephane Lasme scored a career-high 21 points in the win. He scored 16 points in the first half alone, just two points shy of his previous career-high of 18, set at St. Bonaventure (1/26/05).
* Lasme had his fourth career double-double, as he also grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds. It was his second double-double of the season and fourth of his career.
* Lasme broke into double-figures less than 10 minutes into the game, as he had 11 points on 4-fof-5 from the floor and 3-for-3 on free throws. It was Lasme's fourth game in double-figures this season and ninth of his career.
* Lasme scored UMass' first eight points of the game as the Minutemen were tied at 8-8, through the first five minutes.
* UMass which came into the game leading the nation in blocked shots at 8.5 per game, had 16 in the game including 11 in the second half. The 16 blocked shots are the second-most in school history and most since the record of 20 was set on Jan. 3, 1995 against West Virginia in Springfield, Mass.
* Junior Rashaun Freeman became the 37th player in UMass history to post 1,000 career points as he made a layout with 8:44 left in the first half. Freeman finished with 10 points, his seventh time in double-figures in eight games this season and 53rd of his career.
* Jeff Viggiano scored in double-figures for the fourth game in a row with 11 points. It is the second time in his career Viggiano scored more than 10 points in four straight games, as he also did it from Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2003. Over the four games, UMass' lone senior is averaging 12.5 over the last four games.
* Viggiano also grabbed 11 rebounds for his fourth career double-double and first since Dayton on Feb. 8, 2004.
* With Lasme and Viggiano, it was the first time since Feb. 3, 2004 vs. Rider that UMass had two players with double-doubles in a game.
* Dante Milligan was the first sub into the game, as he came in with 16:37 left in the first half. In his first game at the Garden, where he had been eight previous times on the bench for Pittsburgh, but never played, he had five points and six rebounds.
* At 5-3 overall, UMass is off to its best start since the 2001-02 season, when they also started 5-3 and eventually 6-3 before a five-game losing streak.
* At halftime, Madison Square Garden presented the first annual "Alonzo Milligan Mentorship Award" named in honor of the late brother of UMass' forward Dante Milligan. Alonzo was tragically murdered this past June at the age of 19, the victim of a random shooting while he was returning home from a christening in his native Harlem. This year, Knicks guard Jamal Crawford has donated $5,000 to the "Alonzo Milligan Mentorship Award" along with 1,000 more from The Boys Club.
On the team's improvement:
"We are improving slowly but surely. We have a lot of room for improvement. These guys are still trying to figure out the offense and defenses. If you get the effort, how hard they played tonight we will get some wins a long the way. When we start executing and learning the offense and shooting better percentages and add that to the effort, we can be a pretty good basketball team. Tonight we won on effort."
On Keydren Clark of Saint Peter's:
"We wanted to try and trap him as much as we could off of every screen and push him out to halfcourt and try to keep him away from the basket. You are not going to keep him away from the ball. He is going to get the ball. We just wanted to make him take tough shots. The shots he made tonight were tough shots. The threes he made were 30-footers. He may be one of the most unselfish point guards in the country."
On Jeff Viggiano:
"Jeff was very active tonight. He was extremely active. He rebounded well and went to the rim. He just needs to be active. He is not great at anything, but he is good at most things. He never had to stop moving. That is his game and I thought he did a good job of that tonight."
EW YORK - University of Massachusetts coach Travis Ford told junior big man Stephane Lasme to get a souvenir as they walked out of Tuesday's postgame press conference.
"Make sure you get yourself a stat sheet as a memento," Ford said. "You did that in Madison Square Garden."
In addition to showing the Minutemen's 66-49 win over St. Peter's (5-5) in the first round of the Panasonic Holiday Festival, that stat sheet showed some impressive numbers by Lasme, who flirted with a triple-double for the second time this season. He finished with career-highs in points (21) and rebounds (14), while blocking eight shots.
Ford wasn't nearly as pleased with Lasme less than 24 hours before. At the Monday night team meeting in the Minutemen's Times Square hotel, Ford called Lasme out. He criticized Lasme's recent play and challenged him to live up to his potential and become a dominant player.
"Since the day I met him, he's always underestimated his ability as a player," Ford said. "I told him he needs to stop being a role player and be a dominant player. He's somebody I really believe can be a dominant player, maybe at the next level. For what he can do, he hasn't scratched the surface. (Monday) night we challenged him in front of the whole team. He responded."
Ford turned and looked at Lasme in the press conference and challenged him again.
"Now we expect this every night," Ford said. "We expect nothing less."
The discussion motivated Lasme.
"I came focused and tried to play hard," said Lasme, who added that he's never had a coach get on him like that before. "I like the way coach talks to me and motivates me."
The win snapped the Minutemen's six-game losing streak outside the Mullins Center. UMass (5-3) will meet St. John's in the tournament final at 8:30 tonight. St. John's beat Columbia 63-39 in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader.
Lasme's effort nearly overshadowed Rashaun Freeman's 1,000th career point and Jeff Viggiano's impressive game. Viggiano had 11 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and a career-high six blocks.
Peacock guard Keydren Clark, who is the nation's two-time defending scoring champ, had a game-high 22 points, but it took him 23 shots to do it. Nobody else on St. Peter's cracked double figures.
"We wanted to try to trap Clark off of every screen and push him out toward half court as much as we could and try to keep him away from the basket," Ford said. "The shots he made tonight were tough shots."
Lasme and Clark went back and forth early. Lasme scored the Minutemen's first eight points and nearly reached his previous career high of 18 points before the break with 16 first-half points. Clark had 13 before intermission, but had to make two 3-pointers from well behind the NBA arc to keep the Peacocks in the game.
The lead yo-yoed for most of the first 20 minutes, but the Minutemen scored the last eight points of the half, including five by New York native Chris Lowe to lead 36-31 at halftime.
UMass continued its defensive dominance in the second half, extending its lead to as many as 18 and rolling to the comfortable win.
"This was one of our best physical and mental efforts of the year," Ford said. "Obviously we didn't play well offensively, but we played very hard. Physically we were relentless and we executed our (defensive) scouting report to perfection."
Matt Vautour can be reached at [email protected]. For more UMass coverage including a frequently updated UMass sports blog, go to www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/umsports.
EW YORK - Dante Milligan wasn't happy with his performance Tuesday, but he was glad the Minutemen beat St. Peter's 66-49 and that the game at Madison Square Garden was behind him. The University of Massachusetts forward had an emotional week to end a difficult year.
Milligan's younger brother Alonzo was killed in a random shooting in New York in June. This week marked his family's first Christmas without Alonzo.
Alonzo Milligan was honored at halftime of the UMass game when the Holiday Festival and the Boys & Girls Club announced the first winner of the Alonzo Milligan Mentorship Award, commemorating his work counseling youngsters in the East Harlem Tutorial Program at the Boys & Girls Club. The annual winner will receive financial assistance for college. New York Knick Jamal Crawford donated $5,000 to the cause.
"It's something I'm proud of," Milligan said. "My brother was always the type of person who looked out for other people and tried to help people."
Milligan and his mother Ruby and representatives of Madison Square Garden and the Boys & Girls Club presented a plaque to Christopher Myrtil, a high school senior from Stony Brook, N.Y., who is the first recipient.
Milligan had five points and six rebounds in 22 minutes but shot 2-for-8 and turned the ball over four times.
"I had a lot of pressure on myself besides the basketball aspect of it. I had a lot on my mind," Milligan said. "I played terrible (Tuesday). I'm going to try to build on it and play better (Wednesday). We have a championship game to win."
NEXT UP - The Minutemen will try to win their first regular-season tournament since the 1995 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu when they face St. John's (6-4) tonight. The game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. but won't start until 30 minutes after the consolation contest between St. Peter's and Columbia.
St. John's, which beat Columbia 63-39, will be without junior guard Darryl Hill, who is battling a left knee injury. Hill is the Red Storm's leading scorer with 13.7 points per game. Junior big man Lamont Hamilton is the team's only other double-figure scorer with 12.4 points to go with his 9.7 rebounds per game.
Ford said he welcomes the short preparation.
"I love the challenge of it," Ford said. "This is a great opportunity for these guys to try to grasp a scouting report in 24 hours, because they'll get a lot in the next 24 hours. I enjoy doing this. If we have the effort we had (Tuesday), I like our chances."
BLOCKS - The Minutemen's 16 blocked shots were the second most in school history behind the 20 blocks the Minutemen had Jan. 3, 2005, against West Virginia at the Springfield Civic Center. While Stephane Lasme is among the nation's leaders with 4.88 per game, Jeff Viggiano is quietly climbing the charts in the Atlantic 10 with 3.25 per game.
"I think people underestimate the length of my arms," Viggiano said. "I have pretty long arms. I've been blessed with that. I have long arms and I can get off the floor pretty good."
JOINING THE CLUB - Rashaun Freeman became the 37th 1,000-point scorer at UMass midway through the first half. He needed only four points entering the game. After Freeman had made two free throws earlier, Viggiano found him cutting to the basket for a layup on a fast break with eight minutes, 45 seconds left.
Freeman finished with 10 points, giving him 1,006 for his career. He needs eight to pass Tyrone Weeks at No. 36 on the list.
TOP ROOKIE - Chris Lowe was named the Atlantic 10 rookie of the week after he scored 10 points and had three assists in Friday's 78-69 win over Siena.
MISCELLANEOUS - Sophomore forward Lawrence Carrier did not play for the first time this season. He was the first healthy scholarship player who did not get off the bench in a game this season.
The Minutemen will try to win their third straight "saint" game tonight. UMass beat the Siena Saints and St. Peter's in its last two games.
Matt Vautour can be reached at [email protected]. For more UMass coverage including a frequently updated UMass sports blog, go to www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/umsports.
| St. Peter's Peacocks | 49 |
| Massachusetts Minutemen | 66 |
| Panasonic Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, New York NY | |
Official Basketball Box Score
Saint Peter's vs UMass
12/27/05 6:30 p.m. at New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)
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VISITORS: Saint Peter's 5-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 Raul Orta........... f 0-6 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 1 3 0 0 19
34 Todd Sowell......... f 3-9 0-0 0-0 1 5 6 1 6 0 0 0 1 37
35 Ivan Bozovic........ c 1-3 0-1 1-2 0 2 2 2 3 1 1 0 1 24
03 Keydren Clark....... g 8-23 4-11 2-2 3 3 6 3 22 3 6 0 0 35
32 Quentin Martin...... g 2-3 0-1 0-0 2 2 4 0 4 1 0 0 1 12
01 Brandon Brock....... 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
10 Kevin Spann......... 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 1 9
12 Derrick Hooker...... 1-5 1-2 0-0 2 2 4 3 3 4 0 0 0 18
15 Kaimondre Owes...... 3-11 0-0 0-0 3 3 6 2 6 0 1 0 2 22
30 Ismaila Traore...... 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 3 2 0 0 2 0 16
33 Michael Gore........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
41 Kinzey Reeves....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3
TEAM................ 2 3 5
Totals.............. 20-67 6-17 3-4 15 22 37 17 49 10 12 2 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-35 37.1% 2nd Half: 7-32 21.9% Game: 29.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-12 41.7% 2nd Half: 1-5 20.0% Game: 35.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-4 75.0% Game: 75.0% 0,1
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HOME TEAM: UMass 5-3
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
13 Lasme, Stephane..... f 8-14 0-0 5-6 9 5 14 1 21 1 0 8 1 34
22 Viggiano, Jeff...... f 4-14 1-7 2-2 1 10 11 1 11 5 1 6 0 36
01 Freeman, Rashaun.... c 4-6 0-0 2-2 3 4 7 3 10 3 1 2 2 24
02 Thomas, Brandon..... g 2-3 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 5 1 1 0 0 15
03 Maxwell, Maurice.... g 3-9 1-5 0-0 0 4 4 0 7 1 3 0 1 37
05 Life, James......... 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 8
14 Lowe, Chris......... 2-5 0-0 3-6 0 3 3 2 7 3 2 0 0 24
20 Dante Milligan...... 2-8 0-1 1-2 3 3 6 3 5 0 4 0 2 22
TEAM................ 1 2 3 1
Totals.............. 25-61 3-17 13-18 17 31 48 11 66 14 13 16 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-29 48.3% 2nd Half: 11-32 34.4% Game: 41.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-6 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-11 27.3% Game: 17.6% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 8-10 80.0% 2nd Half: 5-8 62.5% Game: 72.2% 0,3
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Officials: Tom Lopes, Joe Lindsay, M. Stephens
Technical fouls: Saint Peter's-None. UMass-None.
Attendance: 7617
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Saint Peter's................. 31 18 - 49
UMass......................... 36 30 - 66