UMass blows 18-point lead before beating West Virginia

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Josh Cohen scored 19 points, and Robert Davis Jr. hit six 3-pointers and finished with 18 points to help Massachusetts survive a furious rally by West Virginia and beat the Mountaineers, 87-79, on Saturday night at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.

Rahsool Diggins scored 15 points, and Matt Cross added 13 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two steals for UMass (6-2).

Quinn Slazinski, who picked up his third personal foul about 2 minutes into the second half, scored 10 consecutive West Virginia points in a 16-2 run sparked when Noah Farrakhan hit a 3-pointer with about 15 minutes to play and capped when Kerr Kriisa made another 3 with 10:29 left. The Mountaineers tied it on a 3-pointer by Seth Wilson about 90 seconds later, and Akok Akok threw down a dunk to make it 62-all with 6:34 to go. Cohen answered with a layup 14 seconds later and UMass led the rest of the way.

The Minutemen made 15 of 18 from the free-throw line in the final 3 minutes to seal it.

Daniel Hankins-Sanford made back-to-back baskets before Davis hit three 3-pointers in a 93-second span to ignite a 24-5 run that gave the Minutemen a 44-26 lead when Hankins-Sanford hit a jumper to cap the spurt with 1:46 left in the first half. Akok Akok hit a jumper with 9:17 to go, and the Mountaineers made just two field goals — 3-pointers by Kriisa nearly 5 minutes apart — on 12 attempts to close the half.

Kriisa, who returned after serving a nine-game suspension imposed by the NCAA for receiving impermissible benefits when he was at Arizona, hit six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points and seven assists for West Virginia (4-6). Slazinski also scored 20, Farrakhan scored 15.

Farrakhan also made his debut with West Virginia, which has used eight players for most of the season. Akok returned to the lineup last week after suffering a medical emergency in a preseason game.

The game was a reunion of West Virginia interim coach Josh Eilert and UMass coach Frank Martin, who were on the staff together at Kansas State in 2006-07 under Bob Huggins. Martin was an assistant coach and Eilert — who was on Huggins’ staff at West Virginia since 2007 and took over when the Hall of Fame coach left following a drunken driving arrest in June — was a graduate assistant.

Huggins, too, was in attendance at MassMutual Center.

West Virginia sophomore Josiah Harris rejoined the team after graduating back on campus earlier in the day with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies. The 19-year-old, who is pursuing a master’s degree in executive sport management, scored all of his 10 points in the second half.

The Mountaineers return home to play on Wednesday against Radford.