DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The UMass Dartmouth men's basketball team downed the Beacons of UMass Boston, 89-76, on Wednesday night to secure their fourth straight win of the season. The Corsairs improved to a 6-7 mark in Little East Conference (LEC) action, and moved to 9-13 overall, while the Beacons fell to a 6-8 league record.
First year guard
Danny Reyes clipped in a pair of early three-pointers to help give the Corsairs an 8-5 edge in the opening four minutes of the game, respectively. Soon after graduate student
Michael Eurquhart Jr. laid in his first bucket of the contest, classmate
Isaac Percy drained a triple off the feed from Reyes to make it 13-11 Corsairs. UMass Boston battled back tying the score up twice in the following two minutes of play. At the midway point of the first, the Beacons found their rhythm going on a 9-0 run to claim a 27-19 lead with under nine minutes left in the opening half.
Junior
Ryan Flauto quickly responded by scoring six of the next nine points for UMass Dartmouth to narrow the Beacons advantage to just one point. Reyes then hit back-to-back jumpers to regain a 32-29 lead entering the last four minutes of the first half. Davon Sanders answered for UMass Boston by knocking down a triple with 2:56 on the clock to tie the game up at 32-apeiece. The Corsairs finished the half strong outscoring the Beacons 7-to-2 highlighted by a three-pointer from sophomore
Trent Santos to give the home team a 39-33 edge heading into the break.
Junior guard
Josh Lopes kicked off the second half by draining two triples in a row, both assisted by Reyes, to extend the Corsairs lead into double digits. At the 16:58 mark, junior
Cam Dunbury dunked the ball off the alley-oop from Reyes to put UMass Dartmouth up by 13 points. The Corsairs continued to build their lead as Lopes and Santos each posted four points apiece in the following three minutes of action. Shortly after Percy drilled a shot from long range, Flauto finished both free throws to give UMass Dartmouth their largest lead of the game at 22 points.
With 10:38 on the clock, Emanual Zayas responded for the Beacons after banking in a triple. Both teams continued to exchange buckets approaching the final five minutes of the contest. Graduate student Jaquan Leonard put the Corsairs back up by 20 points after finishing a tough driving layup. First year
Justice Buchannan laid in his first points of the night before Reyes clipped in a jumper to cement the Corsairs 89-76 victory against the Beacons.
Percy led the team with 19 a game-high 19 points going 6-of-9 from the field, a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc, and 3-for-4 from the line. The veteran captain also posted a team-high seven rebounds and two steals in the win. Lopes followed with 17 points (6-13 FG, 2-3 3-FG, 3-4 FT) with three assists and one defensive board. Reyes ended the night with 12 points (5-9 FG, 2-4 3-FG) to go along with seven assists, six rebounds, and three steals. Flauto also scored 12 points for the Corsairs going 5-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe to go with three offensive boards.
UMass Dartmouth are on the road for their next Little East tilt on Saturday, Feb. 15 at the University of Southern Maine. The conference matchup is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. from the Hill Gym.
