WELLESLEY, Mass. – The UMass Dartmouth women's basketball team fell on the road to UC Santa Cruz, 64-42, on Monday afternoon in the opening day of the Judy Pearson 85' Memorial Tournament hosted by Babson College. The Corsairs dropped to 4-5 overall on the season after falling to the Slugs who improved to a 8-8 mark on the year.
The Slugs grabbed an early 4-0 lead in the game before graduate student guard
Yasmine Santos put the Corsairs on the scoreboard with a good layup. Senior captains
Melanie DeMeo and
Kasey Oliver each added another basket to cut Santa Cruz's lead in half to 12-6 with three minutes left in the first quarter. Bria Tate started a 7-0 run for the Slugs with a three-point shot to make it a 19-6 advantage. Graduate student guard
Kaila Pruitt finished the opening quarter strong for UMass Dartmouth by knocking down the first triple of the afternoon for UMass Dartmouth off the feed from first year guard
Jillian Doherty.
Trailing 22-9 in the second quarter, Santa Cruz continued to pull away with a 23-point lead after scoring 10 unanswered points. With 4:16 on the clock, Santos disrupted the Slugs offense with a driving layup to make it a 32-11 game. DeMeo drained a late jump shot to close out the first half, but the Corsairs entered halftime down 38-13.
Santa Cruz kicked off the third quarter with an 11-2 run highlighted by a pair of three-point shots from Alyssa Jackson. Pruitt clipped in her second triple of the afternoon for UMass Dartmouth with 5:01 on the clock to make it 49-18. Oliver finished a layup off the feed from first year guard
Carly McDonald before first year guard
Riley Graveline wrapped up the quarter by posting four points.
UMass Dartmouth found their rhythm early in the final quarter of the contest, going on a 9-0 run in the opening four minutes of action, respectively. Pruitt knocked down another three-point shot while Graveline added her first triple in the nine-point run to make it a 49-33 game. A few minutes later, DeMeo found Graveline again who sank her second shot from behind the arc. In the final minutes of play, first year
Jenna Micciantuono laid in her first career basket for the Corsairs, but the Slugs went on to seal the victory by a final score of 64-42.
Graveline finished the game with a career-high 12 points for the Corsairs after going 5-for-11 from the field featuring two triples (2-5), one assist, and a steal. Pruitt went 3-for-4 from behind the arc to produce nine points on the afternoon including a season-high eight rebounds as well as one blocked shot. Santos also dropped nine points (4-10 FG, 1-4 FT) to go along with seven boards and a steal. DeMeo scored six points with a pair of assists and one rebound while McDonald dished out a team-high three assists. Doherty also hauled in a career-high eight rebounds including seven defensive boards for UMass Dartmouth.
The Corsairs wrap up the Pearson Memorial Tournament tomorrow on Tuesday, December 30
th against the University of Hartford starting at 3:00 p.m. from the Staake Gymnasium.
