National Basketball Association
Massachusetts 72, Drexel 70
When: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Where: Daskalakis Athletic Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Officials:
# Brian O'Connell, # Jeff Anderson, # Gene Steratore
Attendance:
2293
By SportsDirect Inc.
Massachusetts 72, Drexel 70: Terrell Vinson scored 14 of his 18 points after intermission as the Minutemen erased a 17-point deficit in the second half to snap the Dragons’ 18-game home winning streak and punch their ticket to the NIT semifinals.
Vinson’s jumper with 4:14 left capped a 32-9 run – and a personal 6-0 spurt – to put the Minutemen in front 68-62.
Drexel fought back to pull within 72-70 on a pair of Frantz Massenat free throws with 1:23 left. After Massachusetts’ Chaz Williams missed the front end of a one-and-one with 23 seconds to go, Massenat missed a runner in the lane with four seconds remaining.
Williams scored 20 points for the Minutemen (25-11), who shot 70.8 from the field in the second half and became the fourth team in NIT history to reach the semifinals with three road victories.
Massachusetts, which lost to Ohio State 92-85 in the 2008 NIT final, will meet Stanford or Nevada on March 27.
Massenat finished with 16 points and nine assists and Dartaye Ruffin scored all 17 of his points in the first half for the Dragons (29-7), who outrebounded the Minutemen 35-16, including 19-6 offensive.
Drexel scored the first nine points en route to a 41-31 halftime lead.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Dragons coach Bruiser Flint was an assistant at Massachusetts when Minutemen coach Derek Kellogg was the point guard. Kellogg later became a graduate assistant under Flint, who took over from John Calipari at Massachusetts following the 1996 run to the Final Four. … Ruffin scored 20 points in his previous five games. … The teams met in a preseason scrimmage. … The Dragons’ home winning streak was the sixth-longest in the nation. … Drexel was 0-5 in the NIT prior to this season.
Top Game Performances
| Massachusetts |
|
Drexel |
|
Chaz Williams 20 |
Scoring |
Dartaye Ruffin 17 |
|
Chaz Williams 4 |
Assists |
Frantz Massenat 9 |
|
Terrell Vinson 5 |
Rebounds |
Samme Givens 10 |
|
Jesse Morgan 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Frantz Massenat 6 |
|
Jesse Morgan 4 |
Steals |
Samme Givens 2 |
|
Terrell Vinson 2 |
Blocks |
Frantz Massenat 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Massachusetts
|
72 |
58.8 |
4-10 |
8-17 |
9 |
16 |
4 |
11 |
13 |
| Drexel
|
70 |
45.2 |
1-13 |
13-20 |
14 |
36 |
4 |
5 |
15 |