A career-high 33 points from Rahsool Diggins wasn't enough in the UMass men's basketball team's 81-72 loss to Saint Joseph's on Tuesday afternoon at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia.

Diggins went 10-for-22 from the floor, including 2-for-6 from beyond the arc, in the defeat as the Minutemen dropped their Atlantic-10 opener on the final day of 2024.

“There's stuff as a coach you worry about and there's other stuff you don't worry about. Some of the stuff, the ball wasn't going in for him and all that, was just him. He had his feelings wrapped up in all the wrong things,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said during the postgame radio show regarding Diggins. “He started refocusing right before the Harvard game and he's back to doing things the way that he's done them to become the player that he is.”

Daniel Rivera poured in 23 points for the Minutemen and added a team-high nine rebounds to supplement Diggins' offense for UMass.

After those two, the Minutemen struggled to convert shots as they finished with a field-goal percentage of 32.9 as a team. The Hawks made 45.6 percent of their shots.

Rebounds (49-35) and 3-point-percentage (35.5%-18.8%) also favored Saint Joseph's on Tuesday.

“Our five-spot is just not productive,” Martin said of the center position. “I'm not asking them to score 20 points, but they don't guard the ball-screen in the middle of the floor and collectively, we got one defensive rebound from the five-spot. Hard to win, hard to win.

“Offensively, we did everything we asked from guys, they tried really hard,” Martin said. “You can't shoot 30 percent and win.”

The Minutemen led for just 1 minute, 42 seconds of the matchup early in the first half before the Hawks took over and improved to 10-4 overall.

UMass (5-9, 0-1) will return to the Mullins Center for its first home A-10 meeting on Saturday against Richmond.

Tipoff is set for noon.