DARTMOUTH, Mass. -Â The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men's basketball team overcame a 17-point second-half deficit to force overtime against MIT and take a home, 89-87, victory to remain perfect on the season Thursday afternoon at the Tripp Athletic Center.
Senior
Marcus Azor paced the Corsairs (4-0) with his third double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 assists and added eight rebounds with four steals and one blocked shot. Graduate student
Jake Ashworth led the team with 25 points, knocking down four triples and was 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Senior
Adam Seablom finished with 23 points, four rebounds and three assists, while junior
Jackson Zancan tallied eight points, nine boards, four steals and two blocks.
For the Engineers (1-2), senior Giannis Chatziveroglou led all players with 33 points and 16 rebounds.
Trailing 67-50 with 10 minutes remaining in regulation, the Corsairs started their run. Buckets by sophomore
Mike Eurquhart, Zancan and Seablom got the home crowd into the game and three free throws from Ashworth capped off an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 67-61 at the 7:12 mark. With the crowd on their feet, Ashworth drilled a triple and sophomore
Isaac Percy made an and-1 to make it 69-69 with 5:05 to go. MIT maintained its slim lead and built it up to seven points with 2:35 left on the clock. An Ashworth And-1 and a basket in the paint from Azor made it 79-77 with eight seconds to go. The Corsairs had the ball on the final play and Azor was fouled driving to the basket. He stuck both his free throws to send the game into overtime.
MIT looked to be in control, taking a six-point advantage with 3:22 on the clock. Ashworth then drove to the hoop and converted an and-1 to spark the Corsairs. Ashworth continued to dominate, cutting the score to 87-85 with a 3-pointer and drilled a pair at the line to even the score at 87 with 1:55 to go. Azor did it again with a floater with 1:14 on the clock to give UMass Dartmouth the thrilling victory.
With the win, the Corsairs start 4-0 for the third consecutive season. UMassD will be looking for its best start since the 2007-08 season when it hosts preseason No. 11 Tufts on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
