CASTLETON, Vt. – The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men's basketball team were topped by Vermont State University Castleton, 98-91, on the road in Little East Conference play on Saturday afternoon. The Corsairs are now 0-4 in conference action while the Spartans secure their first league win of the season to improve to 1-3.
Castleton jumped out to an early 8-2 lead kicked off by a triple from Ben Seiler in the opening three minutes of play. Shortly after first year
Camden DiChiara knocked down a triple, junior
John Marcille clipped in his first three-pointer for UMass Dartmouth to make it a 12-10 game. Graduate student
Michael Eurquhart Jr. tied the score up at 12-apeice with 14:24 on the clock. Approaching the midway point of the half, the Corsairs continued to battle as they were three lead changes before Will Radcliff leveled the game at 23-apeice.
At the 5:55 mark, the Spartans took a 34-30 advantage over the Corsairs thanks to a triple by Crisrael Lithgow. Graduate student
Isaac Percy finished a driving layup to make it a one possession game, but Castleton sank a pair of late three-pointers to help give them a 48-42 edge heading into halftime.
The Spartans pulled away with a 10-point lead to start the second half of the contest after tacking on a couple of early baskets. UMass Dartmouth responded by connecting five straight points with Percy contributing three points, all coming from the charity stripe. The home side generated a 7-0 run to claim a 59-47 lead that was disrupted by a good layup from junior
Ryan Flauto. UMass Dartmouth narrowed Castleton's lead thanks to a 13-4 run featuring three triples, two of which came from Boyd, to make it a one-point game.
Junior
Josh Lopes joined in on the three-pointer train draining a triple at the 9:45 mark to tie the score at 67-apiece. Boyd leveled the game again with his third three-pointer of the game, but Castleton soon answered with an 11-4 run of their own to regain an 82-75 edge. DiChiara dropped seven of the final 12 points for the Corsairs in the last minute of the game, but Castleton secured the victory by a final score of 98-91.
DiChiara ended the game with 25 points (8-19 FG, 2-10 3-FG, 7-7 FT) along with six rebounds, two steals, and one block. Percy scored 18 points for the Corsairs after going 5-of-9 from the field along with 8-of-12 from the line. Boyd also dropped double digits with 11 points (4-5 FG, 3-4 3-FG) with five assists and four rebounds. Eurquhart Jr. hauled in a team-high nine rebounds, five offensive and four defensive, along with eight points, one assist, one block, and a steal.
UMass Dartmouth returns to Little East action on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at UMass Boston. The conference tilt is scheduled for a 4:00 p.m. start time from the Clark Athletic Center Gymnasium.
