The schedule for the UMass Lowell men’s basketball team is going from 0 to 60 mph in a blur.
After opening the season with a victory against NCAA Division III Rivier, the River Hawks defeated Saint Peter’s — a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season — by an 81-74 decision last Friday.
Next up?
A trip Friday to Spokane, Wash., to face No. 4 Gonzaga, a program that has reached the NCAA’s Sweet 16 nine consecutive times.
“It will bring great exposure and experience for our program,” said coach Pat Duquette, who has led the River Hawks since they it made the jump to Division I in 2013.
Senior Quinton Mincey was named the America East Conference’s player of the week after matching a career high with 27 points against Saint Peter’s. Freshman teammate Martin Somerville was honored as the conference’s top rookie as the River Hawks swept the weekly awards.
“This was a hard-fought win against a tough team that went to the NCAA Tournament last year and returned a good group of their core,” Duquettte said. “So I thought it was a good win, a little sloppy at times but we didn’t back down, we played aggressive and scored 81 points against a good team. I don’t think they are going to give up 81 points very often. We can win in a lot of different ways, so if that’s how you want to play, we’ll shoot free throws and we’ll fight and show you how we can win that way. … A lot of guys stepped up, so I’m happy about that.”
The River Hawks (2-0) step up against Gonzaga (2-0), a team that destroyed then-No. 8 Baylor 101-63 in its opener and then got past Arizona State 88-80 on Sunday.
The Bulldogs were powered by big performances against the Sun Devils from a pair of transfers: Khalif Battle (Arkansas) and Michael Ajayi (Pepperdine).
Battle scored all 19 of his points in the second half, including a thunderous alley-oop dunk and a dagger of a 3-pointer from the left corner in the final 10 minutes.
“He’s quick-twitch and athletic, and one of those guys who can really, really, really go downhill,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of the 6-foot-5 Battle. “We really haven’t had somebody like that in a while.”
Ajayi added nine points, 12 rebounds, three steals and was a team-high plus-13 in point differential off the bench.
The 6-7 Ajayi led the West Coast Conference in scoring (17.2 points per game) and was second in rebounding (9.9) last season. He is averaging a team-best 10.0 rebounds per game for the Zags.
“He assumes every ball is his,” Few said.
They weren’t the only big contributors Sunday.
Braden Huff came off the bench to score a team-high 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and Ryan Nembhard added 13 points and 11 assists — with zero turnovers.
“At points in that game we struggled to get stops, but at the end when we needed them, we really locked in and got them,” Huff said. “Last year’s team it was a bunch of new guys, so it took us awhile to kind of get acclimated and get used to each other in our roles, but I think this year we’ve got a lot of returners and guys like KB (Battle) and Mike (Ajayi), the new guys have fit it in kind of seamlessly. So, I think that transition’s been pretty easy so far early in the season.”
