By Justin A. Rice/Daily News correspondent
This past week was a rare treat for the Minutemen's red-shirt junior guard from Roxbury.
Six nights after returning to the site of North's 2005 and 2006 Eastern Mass. championships for an upset over Memphis at the TD Garden, Gurley finally got to play a real game at Conte Forum, where he attended summer camp as a kid.
``It feels good being able to go home twice in a week, playing in front of hometown fans,'' Gurley said before UMass' 79-67 loss to Boston College last night.
Collecting his first career double-double with a game-high 23 points and a career-high 10 rebounds, Gurley was 6-of-20 from the field and 2-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line.
``It was one of those nights,'' Gurley said after shaking his head at the stat sheet. ``You know every night is not going to be Christmas. So I guess you gotta find other ways to get the job done, whether it's rebounding or defense, or stuff like that.
``I guess that's what I attempted to do tonight.''
Gurley paced UMass in the first half with 11 points, including a dunk that tied it at 19. But BC led 26-25 at the break after Gurley missed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just inside the midcourt logo.
BC extended its lead to 10 with 10:22 to go and UMass got within five, 60-55, with just under five minutes to play. But Joe Trapani (18 points) sunk a 3-pointer that would have just about sunk the Minutemen with 4:05 to play had it not been for a flagrant foul late in the game.
With 1:42 to play, UMass cut it to 70-63 after Ricky Harris was intentionally fouled by BC's Reggie Jackson. Harris split the free throws and the Minutemen got the ball back and got a layup. On the other end, however, Jackson put BC up 72-63, and even Sean Carter's emphatic dunk was too little, too late for UMass.
As good as it felt to play at Conte Forum last night, the experience did not top beating Memphis at the Garden on Saturday night.
``Not at all, not even close,'' UMass' leading scorer said on Tuesday. ``I went to high school in Newton, but I'm from Roxbury. I grew up going to the Garden. It was definitely very, very, very exciting.''
Gurley scored 14 points for the Minutemen in the 73-72 victory. The winning play against Memphis was actually drawn up for Gurley with 3.8 seconds left. But the plan broke down and the ball ended up in the hands of freshman Terrell Vinson, who knocked down the game-winning jumper.
It was the first UMass game at the Garden since 1997.
``It was big for our program, it gives us a lot of confidence and it just kind of lets Boston fans know there's a lot going on out in Western Mass. as well,'' Gurley said. ``When I was growing up, I didn't know too much about UMass. I knew of (John) Calipari and (Marcus) Camby. But other than that I did not follow their program because they were on the other side of the state.''
For North coach Paul Connolly, the fact that Gurley ended up in Amherst makes a lot of sense. Of all the recruiters that visited Gurley in Newton, including Memphis, Syracuse and N.C. State, the UMass efforts stood out.
``Travis Ford drove 120 miles per hour to get here,'' Connolly said of the former UMass coach, whom Derek Kellogg replaced after Ford bolted to Oklahoma State.
Ultimately, Gurley was lured away by Winston-Salem's Southern hospitality. He averaged 6.4 points and 14.5 minutes per game as a freshman, and was doing well academically. But Connolly said the late Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser told him that spring that Gurley was homesick.
``It was a great experience,'' Connolly said, ``but when it was all said and done, when you got home and your head hits the pillow at night, are you happy? And he wasn't.
``I tried to walk him through the process a little bit, but at the end of the day he wasn't happy.''
Connolly said the fact that another former North standout, Lex Mongo, plays for the Minutemen helped ease Gurley's transition to Amherst.
``That was good for Anthony to have a buddy out there, he's very happy out there,'' Connolly said. ``He's in a situation where he's going to score 1,000 points in three years, barring injury.''
Connolly said Mongo could've stared in Division 3, but chose to walk-on at UMass.
``I'm really proud of Lex because that's not an easy role,'' Connolly said.
Connolly watches all of his former players at the collegiate level at least once each season, including Corey Lowe at Boston University. But he did not see Mongo and Gurley play in person until earlier this season against Arkansas-Fort Smith on Nov. 21 - a game in which Mongo recorded his first career assist.
Connolly missed Saturday's game at the Garden, but did attend last night's game against BC.
``I sent (Gurley) a text after the game in the Garden and told him you and Lex are 3-0 at the Garden,'' said Connolly, referring to their two high school triumphs on the parquet.
Last night's game was not Gurley's first against BC. Last season, Gurley scored 17 points as UMass fell to BC, 85-81, in Amherst. The season before that, Gurley scored 13 points for Wake in a loss to the Eagles in Winston-Salem.
He fell short again last night.
``I was proud he had 10 rebounds, but it looked like he tired a little bit at the end, and didn't sprint back on defense as hard as I'm accustomed to him doing,'' Kellogg said. ``He had a good game, but I think he can continue to improve and get better.''
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