FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men's basketball team lost big to Carthage College, 81-58, Wednesday. This was UMD's final match of the Cruzin' Classic tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The Corsairs drop to 3-7 overall while the Firebirds advance to 9-1.
After going into halftime down only six points, Carthage shut UMD down on defense in the second half, where the Firebirds pulled way ahead en route to a victory. The Corsairs only had two player reach double figures in fifth year
Dhalyn Sanders-Dyer with 11 points and junior
Isaac Percy with 10.
Leading the way for Carthage with 27 points and six rebounds was senior Fillip Bulatovic. Sophomore A.J. Johnson had an impactful performance as well with 18 points on 4/7 from behind the arc and eight rebounds.
This was not the Corsairs' day from a shooting perspective. For the game, they went just 24/66 from the field (36.4%) and 4/18 from beyond the arc (22.2%). Despite the low efficiency from the field, UMD was able to hang tight throughout the first half. They did not trail by more than ten points at any point in the half, and went to the locker room trailing 37-31.
The Firebirds came out in the second half on fire, going on a 18-6 run in the first seven minutes. The Corsairs trailed 55-37 at this point and were never able to close the gap. With two minutes remaining, and down 20+ points, head coach
Brian Baptiste subbed in some players who have seen limited minutes so far this season. Carthage College went on to win the contest 81-58.
UMass Dartmouth was outscored on points off of turnovers 15-9. The Firebirds scored 13 fast break points to the Corsairs' two. Carthage won the battle inside the paint with 42 points to UMassD's 28.
With that loss, UMass Dartmouth men's basketball's 2022 portion of their season concludes. They return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 4 in a LEC battle with Keene State. The Corsairs will be hosting Keene State in their first matchup of the season. Tip-off is at 6 PM.
