Bristol Reporter

Corsairs Unable to Hold onto Lead Over Eastern Connecticut

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men's basketball team led most of the way but fell short, 68-65, to Eastern Connecticut in a back-and-forth Little East Conference (LEC) battle. 

Fifth year Dhalyn Sanders-Dyer tallied a double-double for the Corsairs (5-13, 4-5 LEC) with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Jackson Zancan nearly posted.one of his own, with nine points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Nic Boyd continues to stroke it well from range, scoring 17 points and going 3-for-6 from deep. 
 
Eastern Connecticut (8-11, 5-5 LEC) was led by their seniors Jalen Williams, who had a game-high 20 points, and Tyreice Woods, who contributed 16 off the bench. 
 
Much like the front half of the double-header, both teams struggled to find their range from deep. The Corsairs had an off night, converting on just 23.8% of their three-point attempts, while the Warriors were not much better, going 5-for-22 (22.7%) on deep balls.
 
Boyd led the early charge for UMass Dartmouth, scoring 11 points and sinking two of his three threes in the first half. Seven minutes in, UMassD went on a 9-2 run to give them an eight-point lead, tied for the largest of the game. 
 
The Corsairs held the lead for 22 consecutive minutes in this contest, before EastConn finally recaptured the lead off a layup from Woods with 13:48 remaining. Woods nailed two back-to-back big shots to extend the Warriors' lead up to eight with just 4:30 left. A couple tough buckets from junior Jayquan Leonard and another Boyd three kept UMass Dartmouth in range with less than two minutes to go. 
 
Two good free-throws from Sanders-Dyer were immediately answered by Woods, Sanders-Dyer responded in a big way again by sinking a three-ball with 15 seconds left to narrow the gap to just two. The Corsairs were forced to foul and sent Woods to the free-throw line, where he went 1-for-2, leaving a window open for UMassD who trailed by three with eight seconds left.  Sanders-Dyer would be the one to take the big-time shot at the buzzer, but it wasn't in the cards that night, and the Corsairs fall 68-65 after giving the Warriors a sweat. 
 
UMass Dartmouth got just one point from non-starters, while the Warriors got 27 points from their bench. EastConn also took advantage of second-chance opportunities, and out-scored UMD in that category 14-to-8.  

UMass Dartmouth will host the Wolves of WestConn at 3 p.m on Saturday. 

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