Box Score (PDF)   |   Final Stats and Play-by-Play

St. Bonaventure Starters: #3 Marcus Posley, #10 G Jaylen Adams,  #21 F Dion Wright, #23 G Andell Cumberbatch, #35 C Youssou Ndoye

The Short Story: UMass turned the tables on St. Bonaventure Wednesday, pulling out a 55-53 win over the Bonnies at the Reilly Center. Jabarie Hinds' three-pointer with eight seconds left after a Bona turnover was the game-winner.

The Bonnies erased a 30-23 halftime deficit, outscoring the Minutemen 9-2 through the first three minutes of the second half. The Bonnies went on to lead by as many as six points and would hold the edge throughout the half.

Freshman point guard Jaylen Adams, however, fouled out with 1:20 left in the game, and the Minutemen brought it to a 53-51 game. After a tie-up, the possession arrow went the Bonnies' way with 23 seconds left. UMass, however, stole Andell Cumberbatch's inbound pass, and Trey Davis found Hinds open on the right wing for his only three-pointer of the night. A last-second jump shot by Cumberbatch and a follow by Youssou Ndoye were both off the mark.

The Bonnies saw their two-game win streak snapped and fell to 13-9 overall and 6-5 in the Atlantic 10. Marcus Posley led St. Bonaventure with 13 points, but had a tough shooting night, finishing 4-16 overall and 1-10 from three-point range. Cumberbatch added 12 points. Dion Wright finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. 

UMass won its fifth in a row and gained a split of the season series.

How It Happened:

• After the starting the game 0-5 from the field, the Bonnies found their first points on an Andell Cumberbatch three pointer at the 16:23 mark to make it a 5-3 game.
• Youssou Ndoye knotted it up at five with a put-back lay in and Cumberbatch stayed hot with his second three-pointer in as many tries to put St. Bonaventure up three at the 14:11 mark.
• Back-to-back bench buckets from Iakeem Alston and Chris Dees put the Bonnies up 13-10 with 10:05 left in the half.
• The two teams traded the lead for the remainder of the half – the lead changed seven times in the final 10 minutes of the half -- until UMass ended the half on a 10-0 run. A Marcus Posley mid-range jumper ended the run, but the Minutemen took a 30-23 lead into the break.
• Cumberbatch became the first player in the game to double-figures in scoring on his layup in the first 30 seconds of the second half, and Jay Adams came down the court on the ensuing possession and knocked down his first three pointer of the night to cut the UMass lead to two, a 30-28 game at the 18:40 mark.
• Ndoye converted a hook shot to tie the game at 32-32 at the 17:04 mark.
• Posley hit a three pointer after Ndoye took a charge at the other end to give the Bonnies a 39-33 lead at the 14:42 mark, their largest of the game.
• Dion Wright continued the run with a steal and a layup in transition that put the Bonnies up 41-35 and led to a UMass timeout at the 13:12 mark. The layup capped an 18-5 scoring start in the half for the Bonnies in the half.
• Denzel Gregg hammered home a dunk off an Adams pass at the 10:43 mark that made it a 45-39 lead.
• Posley flew across the baseline and dumped the ball off to Wright in the lane and he hit the floater to bring the Bona lead back to six on a score of 51-45 with 5:14 left in regulation.
• Wright scored with 2:45 left to make it 53-47.
• Adams and Hinds were called for a double foul with 1:38 left, then just 18 seconds later Admas fouled out of the game on a reach-in call, leaving Posley to run the point and defend a 53-49 lead the rest of the way.
• After the Adams foul, Derrick Gordon made the first of two free throws to make it 53-50.
• Cumberbatch rebounded the miss but was stripped and he fouled Trey Davis. Davis then sunk two free throws, making it a 53-52 St. Bona lead with 1:16 left.
• At the other end, Posley drove but his shot was off the mark and Gordon secured the rebound.
• On the ensuing UMass possession, Gregg tied up UMass center Cady Lalanne and the possession arrow favored St. Bonaventure.
• SBU called a timeout with 23.1 seconds remaining, still clinging to a 53-52 lead and setting up the final sequence.

Beyond The Boxscore

• UMass gained a split of the season series.
• With 10 points, Dion Wright has now scored in double figures in seven consecutive games.
• SBU had 11 first-half turnovers, its most in a first half since conference play began. The Bonnies would go on to have 15 in the game.
• The Bonnies forced 20 Minutemen turnovers, tying a season high.
• St. Bonaventure made just five free throws, its fewest in seven games. Only two Bonnies – Posley and Gregg – even attempted free throws.
• Wednesday was the third in a string of four games where the Bonnies faced teams in the top five in the A-10, starting with Davidson followed by VCU. St. Bonaventure travels to Dayton on Saturday.
• UMass entered the game at No. 47 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) as listed on NCAA.com; the Bonnies are at No. 123.
• The series between the Bonnies and Minutemen is now 41-23 favor UMass.

Quotes from Coach Mark Schmidt:
"Both teams didn't play great offensively. I thought it was a great defensive game, we didn't get off to a great start and the last minutes of the first half we didn't play very well. We turned the ball over too much in the first half."

"I thought we collected ourselves, played much better in the second half. We forced 20 turnovers and I thought we did the job defensively. We didn't play 40 minutes, we didn't execute at the end. If you told me we'd have the ball up a point with 20 seconds left, I'd take that every time." 

Up Next: St. Bonaventure will play its third straight game against one of the Atlantic 10's top five teams on Saturday when it visits Dayton (8-3). Game time will be 12:30 and NBC Sports Network will televise the contest.