With the positive vibes from a conference-opening win over Dayton lost in a blowout defeat at the hands of Xavier on Wednesday night, Massachusetts was hungry to get back on the right track. And the area where that desire tends to stand out is in the paint, where nothing comes easy. UMass got the job done inside, outscoring La Salle 54-38 in the paint on their way to a 74-71 victory. Anthony Gurley led the Minutemen (10-6, 2-1) with 20 points and three other UMass players reached double figures as the home team hung on to survive a second half Explorer rally. UMass led by as many as 15 points in the second half before La Salle (8-10, 0-3) fought their way back into the contest, holding the Minutemen without a field goal for nearly five minutes and crawling to within two points with 4:12 remaining.

But a Gurley three pointer extended the lead back out to five (72-67), and the Explorers could draw no closer than three points the rest of the game. Dr. John Giannini’s team had a chance to tie after a pair of Javorn Farrell missed free throws but a Ruben Guillandeaux three-pointer missed the mark as time expired. Jarrell Williams led the Explorers with 20 points and eight rebounds with Aaric Murray adding 12 and Tyreek Duren 11, but their team shooting percentage of 39.4% proved costly. Murray and Guillandeaux combined to make just eight of twenty-seven field goals on the afternoon, and the inability of La Salle to keep the Minutemen out of the paint on the other end got them into trouble as the game wore on.