Wednesday,
November 28th was the day UMass Lowell and Stonehill College played
a basketball game in Costello Gym. The game went a little overtime, from 5:30
pm to around 7:05 pm. It was a very intense game and neither team was ahead by
more than four points throughout the game until the last 29 seconds and earlier
in the second half (scores like 49 to 41 and 52 to 45, UML to Stonehill). There
were 14 lead changes in this game and 9 times where the score was tied. It was
a close game that caused a lot of uncertainty in me in who would turn out
winning, because each team kept getting back and forth at each other.
Boneless
chicken wings were provided behind the honors students stand along with free
blue T-shirts for the Commonwealth Honors Program. Before the game started, the
national anthem “Star Spangled Banner” was sung. After this, the game started.
UML had a rough start, being behind 6 points just a few minutes in already. I
think the first tie was 27 to 27 when there was around 6 minutes left in the
first half. I noticed a band seated in the stands, and this band had the
biggest tubas I’d ever seen.
Most
of the stands had a good chunk filled, but there were still noticeably empty
seats. I was sitting in the honors seating area where the other honors students
were sitting as well. While the rest of the audience watched from a side view,
I and other honors students watched from a back view. This picture shows what
view we were observing from. It was a bit hard to see what was going on when
the teams were at the other side of the court.
Before
I get into specifics about the game itself, I noticed several 3-point shots
were made by UMass Lowell but the whistle was blown before these could count
towards the scoreboard – it was for fouls, but it still was interesting to me
and it made me think of how many “lost points” UMass Lowell had. If these “lost
points” were added, UMass Lowell would have had more points than Stonehill at
the end of the game. There were many hasty attempts at the hoop that should not
have been taken, though. What I noticed is that there were situations where
both teams were getting rebounds, but then they tried shooting where they were
when the opposing team was blocking and making the shots much more difficult.
Many of these shots resulted in more rebounds and failures, giving the ball to
the other team. Of course some of these made it in, but they seemed quite
inaccurate and impatient. In my opinion, it wasted more time and prevented the
teams from optimizing their scores.
It
turns out that Bianca Simmons, a senior at UMass Lowell that’s on the
basketball team, matched her career-high of 28 points for the second straight
game according to the Go River Hawks website. There was frequent scoring on
both teams throughout this game. As previously mentioned, the scoreboard was
surprisingly consistent all throughout and each team kept going back and forth
with the lead. The later part of the second half was when Stonehill stayed with
the lead. While the crowd was lively the entire game (I couldn’t even hear the
announcer’s words clearly from how loud it was inside the Costello Gym) they
definitely increased the energy in the second half when the scores were nearing
in. With 2:29 left on the game clock and 7:00 pm in real time, UML was only 2
points behind Stonehill 73 to 75. This got the crowd pumped, and I was hearing “Go
UMass Lowell!” and other shouts like “Defense!” With 0:25 on the game clock,
UML was behind 5 points after Stonehill made a 3-point shot. That was
unfortunate for UML with such a short amount of time left in the game. In the
end, Stonehill won 82 to 75.
In
half time, there were younger children who were playing on the basketball court
and the band was playing more music. Then a little before the second half
started both teams went back on the court and did some practice shots and runs.
At the end of the game, I noticed the band playing on the stands again, but
this time I saw little girls doing movements with their arms. I’m not exactly
sure what it was, it must have been some rehearsed dance routine. Either way
everyone seemed happy about the game, it was full of energy, and I enjoyed how
it was close throughout with scoring on both teams occurring frequently.
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