UMass leading scorer Davis a game-time decision

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UMass leading scorer Trey Davis a game-time decision for Tuesday vs. George Washington after rolling ankle




The right ankle injury that sent Trey Davis to the locker room Saturday and limited the senior point guard throughout the second half of the University of Massachusetts basketball team's loss to St. Bonaventure has left Davis' status for Tuesday's matchup with George Washington in question, coach Derek Kellogg said Monday.

Davis suffered a twisted ankle just over midway through the first half Saturday, the injury the result of landing on a St. Bonaventure defender's foot as Davis came down from a 3-point shot. Davis returned to action after a brief trip to the training room, but clearly wasn't his usual self playing on the bum ankle the rest of the way. He finished with eight points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Whether or not he's close to his usual self before tipoff against GW will determine his status Tuesday.

"He won't practice today and he'll probably be a game-time decision tomorrow," Kellogg said, adding that Davis' ankle swelled up later that evening following the game.

"It really hasn't gone down too, too much, but I'm assuming he'll play tomorrow. But he won't be practicing today."

Davis, who underwent a surgical procedure on his left ankle in back in April 2014, said he wants to suit up, but won't force the situation if he's not ready to go.

"It's going to be fine. I just don't know if it's going to be fine by tomorrow," he said. "I'm going to try to do as much as I can. We've got to win that game."

To win, UMass almost certainly needs Davis to play. Through 15 games, he leads the Minutemen with 18.7 points per night, is their best free-throw shooter and contributes a sizable chunk of the team's rebounds and assists, too. With its top 3-point threat hobbled in the second half, UMass struggled to close the gap in a failed comeback attempt against St. Bonaventure.


"I was limited on my shot, limited on my jump. I was trying to jump off my left (foot). I play the game with speed and I really couldn't play with speed when I was out there," Davis said. "I tried to give it a go, but it really didn't go my way. I'll leave it in the past."

As shooter who likes to take long 3-pointers that draw defenders scrambling out to close the gap, Davis said he's always conscious of the possibility of coming down awkwardly on an opposing player. As soon as he let go of the shot ? an airball, as it turned out ? he had a sinking suspicion that he was in for a rough landing.

"This was kind of different, because there was one second left on the shot clock. So I had to (shoot)," he said. "He knew I was going to shoot, I knew I was going to shoot. He was already right there when I threw it up. I felt him come under me and I wash hoping that that wouldn't happen.

"The goal is to get through to tomorrow," he added. "I know, for sure, I'm going to be good on Saturday. Saturday's not a problem. It's just tomorrow. If I can get through tomorrow, I think I'll be good. I'll have to work some magic tonight or something."
 

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Three things to know

Avoiding the slide: A loss Tuesday would be the Minutemen's third straight, which would be a losing streak by anyone's definition of the term. But from a mental standpoint for his players, Kellogg wants to see a strong game, win or lose, to keep away and prevailing feelings that the team is in a total free fall at the start of Atlantic 10 play.

"I'd like to play well just so they know we can do it for a consistent period of time. Some of the stuff we do in practice looks really good and I'd like to carry it over to games," he said. "It'd be important to just play the game the way it's supposed to be played. Sometimes we've given effort and a couple basketball plays don't go our way, a missed layup, a couple free throws. And then all of a sudden we're fighting out of a hole. We've got to try to make as many good, consecutive basketball plays as we can and see if we can get it past two or three to four and five. If you do those things, you have a chance to win a game. Until you do, you're going to consistently find yourself fighting an uphill battle."

Cavanaugh & Larsen: Kellogg called GW's post combination of Tyler Cavanaugh (16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds per game) and Kevin Larsen (11.8 and 8.1) the "best 4-5 tandem in the league." Both are coming off monster games ? they combined for 55 points and 21 rebounds ? to power the Colonials to a 27-point win over Duquesne last time out. That's troubling for UMass, which has struggled with talented bigs, especially at the stretch 4 position where Cavanaugh, who transferred in from Wake Forest, has proven himself to be an adept 3-point threat (41.2 percent, six made 3s vs. Duquesne).

Seth's production: An underrated factor in the Minutemen's struggles the last two games has been the drop off in production from sophomore forward Seth Berger. Against Dayton, Berger barely played because of foul trouble and Saturday against St. Bonaventure he fouled out with five points and three rebounds.

"He's playing a lot of minutes and also been in some foul trouble, which has hurt us," Kellogg said. "I always want our UMass identity to be a pressing, running team that forces tempo and creates some turnovers. When he's in foul trouble, that prohibits us from trying to do that because he's probably our best of second-best pressing guy on the team. So it's presented some issues."



UMass wins if...
... Trey Davis, who's been labeled a game-time decision with an ankle injury, plays and is able to be an effective shooter while the team can get a strong effort in the paint against the Cavanaugh/Larsen duo. We saw how ineffective UMass was trying to quickly close the gap against St. Bonaventure without Davis at full health and we could see something similar Tuesday.

UMass loses if...
... Davis is a scratch and UMass can't shoot its way past the Colonials. Relying on Jabarie Hinds to suddenly play like he did in November on top of getting elite defensive production out of the post is asking an awful lot of this team right now.
 
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