BOSTON, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth women's basketball team sailed past the Beacons of UMass Boston on Tuesday afternoon by a final score of 69-46 in Little East Conference (LEC) action. The Corsairs collect their fifth consecutive win to improve to 11-2 on the season and remain undefeated in LEC play with a 5-0 league record. The victory also marks an incredible milestone for head coach
Matt Ducharme who reached his 200 career win at the helm.
The Corsairs jumped out to an early 7-2 lead as senior
Amaris Mills opened the game by knocking down a triple off the assist from graduate student
Carly Whiteside. Tatiannah Fevry finished an and-one play to tie the score up at 7-apeice. At the 4:12 mark, Vanessa Bucha sank a three-pointer to give the home team a 14-8 advantage. Whiteside quickly answered posting seven of the next 11 points for the Corsairs to regain a 19-18 edge with under two minutes left in the opening quarter. Fifth year
Jaelyn Lavigne finished a late layup to keep UMass Dartmouth ahead entering the second.
Sophomore
Shelby Companion kicked off the second with a good driving layup that started a 10-2 run to pull away with a nine-point lead. After Tajeiha Madison responded for the Beacons with a triple, both teams struggled to convert on offense with UMass Boston adding three points from the charity stripe to make it 32-28. Whiteside laid in her eleventh point followed by another three-pointer from Mills to extend the Corsairs advantage to 37-28. With three seconds on the clock, graduate student
Jane McCauley finished a late layup to give UMass Dartmouth a 39-28 cushion heading into halftime.
Junior
Melanie DeMeo tacked on her first points of the afternoon after draining a three-pointer off the feed from Mills to open the second half for UMass Dartmouth. Whiteside dropped five more points highlighted by an and-one play before McCauley knocked down her second triple of the afternoon. The Beacons brought it back to a 10-point game thanks to a 6-0 run, but after a quiet stretch McCauley clipped in a triple to put the Corsairs up 55-40 at the end of the third.
Fifth year
Jemima Joseph tipped in her own rebound to commence the final quarter of the game. McCauley then sank back-to-back triples to give UMass Dartmouth their largest lead of the game at 23 points with 7:23 on the clock. Companion knocked down a shot from range before Joseph finished a layup to seal the Corsairs fifth consecutive win and improve to 5-0 in conference play.
Whiteside led the offense with 17 points making 7-of-8 shots from the field along with eight rebounds, two assists, and a steal. She also posted a team-high three blocks in the game marking her third three-block game of the season. McCauley also scored in double digits with 14 points (5-15 FG) knocking down a game-high four triples with a pair of rebounds. Graduate student
Teja Andrews recorded five total steals in the game, bringing her to 35 steals on the year, while dropping eight points and hauling in eight rebounds. Mills dished out a career-high eight assists in the win over the Beacons while also recording eight points, two rebounds, and two steals.
The Corsairs return home for their next Little East match up Thursday, Jan. 16 hosting the University of Southern Maine. The league game is slated for 4:00 p.m. tipoff from the Tripp Athletic Center.
