AMHERST, Mass. (AP)—Gary Forbes scored 26 points and Chris Lowe added 23 to lead Massachusetts to a hard-earned 78-76 win over Rhode Island in an Atlantic 10 Conference game Thursday night.
UMass (15-7, 4-4 Atlantic 10) trailed only once in the game, at 55-54 on a layup by Joe Embang with 10:52 to play. But Forbes then got the next three points and the Minutemen were on top for good.
Forbes also added 13 rebounds to his night’s work. Etienne Brower had 10 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for UMass, which held a slim 54-51 edge on the boards.
Will Daniels had 19 points and 14 rebounds and Parfait Bitee scored 17 points for Rhode Island, whose record fell to 19-4 and 5-3 in the A-10.
UMass’ biggest lead was nine points (76-67) with three minutes to play.
