PROVIDENCE — As soon as UMass big man Rashaan Holloway let go of the rim, after grabbing a floating entry pass and flushing the ball two-handed between two Providence defenders, he knew he had held on too long.

Minutemen coach Derek Kellogg­ was screaming at him from the bench, pointing at the other end of the floor.

Holloway still had a post-dunk spring in his step, but Friars forward Kalif Young had leaked free and was racing all by himself to the other rim.

Holloway sprinted for dear life but he was never going to catch him. Young got an easy two-handed dunk of his own at the other end.

“After I got the dunk, I was like, ‘We’ve got some energy,’ ’’ said Holloway. “Then as soon as I got off the rim and turned around, he went down for a dunk.’’

All Kellogg could do was throw up his arms, nearly falling to the floor in disbelief.

“It was probably very embarrassing for my wife when your 43-year-old husband is jumping on the floor,’’ Kellogg said. “That’s real fun.’’

Kellogg knew that play was pivotal­. The game was at a tipping point, with Providence in the middle­ of an 11-2 run. UMass needed to stop the bleeding.

“It was kind of a turning point for them,’’ Kellogg said. “It’s like a helpless feeling where you just know it’s happening.’’

The Minutemen couldn’t afford to beat themselves, but at key moments in a 75-69 loss to the Friars on Saturday afternoon, they did.

After running neck and neck with the Friars in the first half, going­ into the break down, 29-28, the Minutemen fired blanks from 3-point range (5 for 19), consistently put the Friars on the free throw line (12 of 20), and let them shoot 50 percent from the floor, unable to get a stop when they needed it.

“That was a tough, hard game for us where if we could’ve limited a few more of our mistakes and made a few better basketball plays, we could’ve been right there at the end,’’ Kellogg said.

UMass clawed back into the game late, largely on the back of Holloway, who scored 17 of his team-high 21 points in the second half. He knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:09 left to cut Providence’s lead to 66-63, but that was as close as UMass would come.

Whenever the Minutemen inched closer, Friars forward Rodney Bullock kept them at bay, scoring 18 of his a game-high 26 points in the second half, including four free throws in the final 41 seconds.

“For as young as we are, as far as playing experience on the floor going against an athletic team like that, I’m very, very proud of the fact that we didn’t break,’’ said Providence coach Ed Cooley. “People­ are going to make runs. We played a really good basketball team, a team that’s going to win a lot of games in their league, a team that’s going win a lot of games overall.’’

The Friars won their fourth straight game to move to 8-2 on the season, and Cooley said he’s beginning to see how his team will come together once it opens its Big East schedule in a couple of weeks.

“We’re searching and finding,’’ Cooley said. “We’re trying to look at and establish a rotation and we’re getting close to knowing what we’re going to be like come January.’’

UMass lost for the second time in three games, falling to 6-3, but Kellogg told his players it was the kind of atmosphere they could expect to see once Atlantic 10 play begins.

“That’s an A-10 road game against one of the top teams in the A-10 — or even a home game against a top team, like playing a VCU, Dayton, or Rhode Island,’’ Kellogg said. “So I think that was a good learning experience. You have to play a certain way for 40 minutes to be able to beat a team like this, especially on the road.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.