The Massachusetts Minutemen (9-3, 0-0 A-10) defeated the Siena Saints (2-11, 1-1 MAAC) 79-66 on Saturday afternoon. The Minutemen extend their lead to 9-1 over the Saints in the all-time series history.
In Saturday afternoon’s win over the Saints, it marked the highest-attended game home game so far this season with 4,036 fans in attendance. “It was good,” said Matt Cross on the attendance from Saturday’s game. “I loved it. It’s good to see that when you win games, people want to come watch…We got to keep it going. We got to keep winning.”
The Minutemen started the game out very slow and sluggish. It looked like there was jet lag involved in UMass’ slow start which allowed the Saints to get out to a lead and keep the game close for most of the game. UMass was able to string along several baskets and gain momentum towards the middle of the second half with the help of Cross and Keon Thompson.
Cross had himself a day with a team-high 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 steals. Matt was 1 rebound and 2 steals away from being the first Minutemen to achieve a triple-double since Chris Lowe against La Salle back in March 2008. “He’s a really good player that’s worked really hard to grow,” said Coach Frank Martin on Matt Cross’s performance. “His growth in the last 12 months has been incredible as a human being which is allowing him to become a better basketball player. You can’t become a better player unless you grow as a human being.” Cross also tied the program record for the most steals in a single game with those 8 steals. Matt joins Luwane Pipkins in holding that record and was close to owning the record as his own if he had at least one more steal in the game.
Thompson also had a career night of 21 points in the game, with 13 of those points coming in the second half. Rahsool Diggins closed out all Minutemen in double-digit scoring with 10 points. Jayden Ndjigue and Daniel Hankins-Sanford both had 6 points, Jaylen Curry and Josh Cohen each had 5 points, and Marqui Worthy had 2 points to round out all scorers for UMass.
UMass opens up conference play on Wednesday, January 3rd against the Duquesne Dukes (9-3, 0-0 A-10) at 7pm in the Mullins Center. This will be the 72nd all-time meeting between the Minutemen and the Dukes, and UMass leads the all-time series history 41-30.
Featured Image: Chris Tucci, UMass Athletics
Kaily “KG” Godek is a current student at Western New England University (WNE). She has been a supporter of UMass Athletics for over 15 years. Kaily focuses on both UMass Basketball teams and occasionally on the other Women’s Basketball teams in the conference. While writing for A10 Talk, she works in the athletic department at WNE. When she graduates from WNE she wants to go into Sports Broadcasting and Journalism. You can follow Kaily on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kgumass23.
