DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Powered by a strong second half effort, Bridgewater State University came-from-behind to defeat UMass Dartmouth, 78-71 in women's basketball action on Tuesday evening. The Bears move to 2-3 with the victory, while the 24th-ranked Corsairs suffered their first loss of the season and are now 5-1 overall.
The Bears, who trailed by 10-points after the opening two quarters, outscored the Corsairs by a 32-13 margin in the third stanza to take a nine-point lead into the final quarter of the contest. UMass Dartmouth quickly countered as senior guard and captain
Teja Andrews dropped in a layup, while fellow senior and captain
Kaylin Zalewski answered with her fifth three-pointer of the game to make it a 58-54 score at 9:14.
Following a BSU foul, Andrews drained both of her free throws, but BSU's Jessica D'Amours answered at the other end with a jumper for the 62-56 Bears lead with 7:36 remaining. Zalewski closed the margin even further, going on a 8-0 run of her own with a three-pointer, a step-back jumper and a pair of free throws to push the Corsairs back into the lead by a 65-62 margin with 6:05 to play.
A back-and-forth battle saw the Bears regain the lead, but an Andrews layup put the home team back up by one (67-66) at 4:23. Another Andrews steal saw Zalewski feed a pass inside to grad student forward
Carly Whiteside, who drained it in the paint for a three-point edge (69-66) with 3:46 left in the game.
The Bears didn't back down as a D'Amours jumper once again closed the gap to 69-68, going ahead with 2:07 on the clock on a Kylie Grassi layup. The Corsairs continued to battle as Whiteside posted another inside layup to regain the one-point margin.
Following a Corsairs miss, the Bears once again grabbed the lead as Caroline Tripp sank a floater (72-71), regaining possession on a UMassD turnover to get the ball back with 55 seconds remaining. With 29 seconds to play, Sydney Bradbury dropped in a three-pointer from outside, forcing the Corsairs to take a timeout down by four (75-71).
Out of the timeout, Zalewski went for the layup, but missed, giving the ball back to the Bears. The Corsairs were tagged for several fouls, the latter of which sent Grassi to the line, who drained a shot to grab the five-point lead with 16 seconds to play. Another foul in the final 11 seconds by the Corsairs, sent D'Amours to the line, draining both for the 78-71 final score.
Five players recorded double-figures for the Bears, paced by Grassi's 19 points, who also added two boards and three assists. Tripp posted a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds with a game-high seven assists, while Bradbury had 14 points with eight caroms, two assists and two steals. Sophia Gaucher posted a double-double of 12 points with 10 rebounds and two blocks, while D'Amours added 10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
For the Corsairs, Zalewski posted a career and game-high 27 points, including 7-of-11 shooting from outside the arc, adding six boards, three assists, a block and a steal. The seven three-point makes were also a career-best for Zalewski. Andrews had 17 points with a game-high four steals, while Whiteside posted a double-double of 10 points and a game-best 12 rebounds.
The Corsairs return to the court on December 6, opening Little East play at Eastern Connecticut State at 5pm.
