Lloyd Price and Kevin Frey double team UMass center Micah Brand. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        AMHERST, Mass. — Massachusetts has Xavier's number. And Xavier's NCAA Tournament chase now has suspense.

        The Musketeers' dreams of an Atlantic 10 title effec tively ended Wednesday with a 59-49 defeat at UMass, their second loss to the Minutemen. At 18-5, 9-3 in the A-10, they're in third place — two games in the loss column behind league leader St.Joseph's (10-1) with just four games to play.

        Ranked 24th just a week ago, XU has lost back-to-back road games and quieted recent talk that it was a certain tourney team.

        “Right now, we don't know,” sophomore center David West said. “This is a good enough team to play in the tournament. But if we have hopes for the NCAAs, we have to finish strong.”

        XU shot just 24 percent (6-for-25) in the second half and lost a five-point lead in the last nine minutes. It made just three baskets in the first 16:39 of the second half, being outscored 14-0 in one critical five-minute stretch.

        “The postseason, I'm not as concerned with,” coach Skip Prosser said. “I'm just concerned with us trying to get better. In the second half, our offense was just horrible.”

Romain Sato defends against Shannon Crooks | ZOOM |

        This is the first time in five years XU has been swept in two regular-season games by the same team. The Minutemen remain the only team against which XU has a losing record (2-5) in A-10 regular-season play.

        Incredibly, a UMass team (11-11) that went 2-9 in nonconference play now controls its own destiny in the A-10 title chase. It's in second place at 9-2 and still has a meeting left with St. Joe's.

        “We've had great focus since the new year,” UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. “Our whole thing is to win the regular-season (title).”

        XU shot 31.5 percent, its second-lowest total of the season, and its six second-half baskets tied for the fewest it has totaled in a half this season.

        Again, West was the only Musketeer to deliver. He totaled 19 points (7-for-12 shooting) and 12 rebounds; the rest of the team shot 10-for-42 (23 percent). In the 75-64 loss Jan.9 to UMass, West totaled 28 points (7-for-13) and 11 rebounds while the rest of the team went 11-for-39 (28 percent).

        Lloyd Price and Kevin Frey were both 1-for-8 Wednesday. Lionel Chalmers was 1-for-7.

        “Somebody needed to make plays, and nobody did,” Chalmers said. “We were taking bad shots.”

        XU led 41-36 with nine minutes left, and appeared ready to get the ball back when UMass' Jonathan DePina was stuck with no apparent shot and the shot clock expiring. But he sank a desperation 3-pointer asChalmers made contact and converted the free throw for a four-point play.

        It was the quintessential turning point.

        “It was a pretty big play,” Prosser said. “Better teams show resolve at times like that. We didn't deal with it the right way.”

        XU didn't even manage a shot on its next two possessions, and UMass kept scoring. When Monty Mack sank a 3-pointer with 4:23 left, it led 50-41.

        “We made a couple bad plays, but we still had a chance,” Chalmers said. “But we couldn't get the job done.”

        XU didn't mount a sustained run. Maurice McAfee, who scored 10 points, was the only player besides West to make a second-half basket. West scored six of XU's final eight points, and XU got as close as 50-44, but UMass closed it out with free throws.

        “They came up with the intensity,” Price said. “We rushed shots, and we paid for it.”

        Prosser said the problem wasn't about effort, but execution.

        “We didn't screen. We didn't cut. We weren't patient enough,” he said.

Frey, Price only 2-for-16 combined

XAVIER (49)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Frey            33   1-8   0-0   2-9  1  3    3
Price           28   1-8   2-3   2-3  2  5    4
West            34  7-12   5-6  6-12  0  3   19
Sato            31   3-8   0-1   0-4  0  0    7
Mcafee          29   3-8   3-4   0-3  1  5   10
Chalmers        28   1-7   1-2   0-4  1  3    4
Young            5   0-1   0-1   0-0  0  1    0
Butler          12   1-2   0-0   1-3  1  3    2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 17-54 11-17 11-38  6 23   49
_______________________________________________


Percentages: FG-.315, FT-.647. 3-Point Goals:
4-22, .182 (Frey 1-3, Price 0-1, Sato 1-6, Mcafee
1-5, Chalmers 1-6, Young 0-1). Team rebounds: 6.
Blocked shots: None. Turnovers: 13 (West 4, Frey
3, Mcafee 2, Chalmers, Price). Steals: 4
(Chalmers, Frey, Sato, West).


MASSACHUSETTS (59)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Smith           27   0-7   0-0   0-2  4  3    0
Brand           29   3-5   1-5  4-10  0  1    7
Rhymer          24   1-3   1-2   0-4  0  3    3
Mack            40  7-20   6-6   0-2  2  0   23
Crooks          29   3-7   2-6   1-2  1  4   10
Depina          19   2-4   4-5   1-2  1  3    9
Rogers          12   2-3   0-2   1-3  0  1    4
Blizzard         5   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  3    0
Williams        15   1-3   0-0   2-4  1  2    3
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 19-52 14-26  9-30  9 20   59
_______________________________________________


Percentages: FG-.365, FT-.538. 3-Point Goals:
7-17, .412 (Mack 3-10, Crooks 2-4, Depina 1-2,
Williams 1-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 6
(Rhymer 4, Brand, Blizzard). Turnovers: 8 (Crooks
3, Blizzard 2, Brand 2, Rhymer). Steals: 6 (Smith
3, Brand, Rhymer, Williams).
__________________________________
Xavier             29   20  -   49
Massachusetts      25   34  -   59
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 5,247. Officials:
Donnie Gray, Ken Clark, Richard San Fillipo.

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