Paradis led three USM players in double-figures as the Huskies earned their 12th consecutive win to improve to 15-1 overall and remain undefeated in the LEC at 7-0. The Corsairs dip to 4-12 overall and are still looking for their first LEC victory at 0-7.
Paradis was 7-for-14 from the field and knocked down 3-of-5 three-pointers to help the Huskies overcome a poor second half shooting performance. Senior forward Ashley Marble (Topsfield, Maine/Woodland) notched her 10th double-double of the season with 15 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and five steals. Marble’s 12 rebounds moves her into second all-time in career rebounds at USM with 971. Sophomore guard Stacey Kent (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Academy) added 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and five steals for Southern Maine which has won 69 consecutive games over its Little East Conference opponents.
Junior forward Lindsey Marsh (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) led the Corsairs with 11 points off of the bench and sophomore guard Ashley Chard (Burlington, Conn./St. Paul) was the only other UMass Dartmouth player in double-figures with 10 points. Sophomore guard Vicki Andruszkiewicz (Danvers, Mass./Danvers) added nine points and five rebounds, while senior guard Meredith Morgan (Amherst, Mass./Williston) tossed in eight points including a pair of three-pointers.
Weathering a three-point barrage from the Corsairs, USM held a narrow 43-34 lead at the break thanks in part to 10 first half points from Paradis. UMass Dartmouth drained 4-of-5 threes in the first half. Morgan and Chard each netted eight points in the opening stanza combining for all four of the Corsairs long-range strikes.
The Huskies led by 11, 47-46, in the early stages of the second half, before the Corsairs caught fire to go on a 12-2 run to pull within one, 49-48, with 14:39 remaining. Following a lay-up from USM’s Marble, the Corsairs’ Andruskiewicz rattled off seven of her teams’ next 10 points on a three-pointer, a lay-up and a pair of free throws before Marsh converted a traditional three-point play scoring a lay-up and sinking the free throw to pull UMass Dartmouth to within a point of USM.
Both teams then went ice cold from the floor, combining to miss the next eight field goal attempts in the ensuing three minutes, before Kent made the second of two free throws to snap the draught and ignite a decisive 15-1 USM run. Marble scored four points and junior forward Angela Santa Fe (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) netted six of her nine points in the run to give USM a 64-49 lead with 7:52 to play.
Struggling offensively, Southern Maine tightened its defensive pressure, limiting the Corsairs to just one field goal during an eight-minute stretch, to lead by as many as 18 points with three minutes to play. UMass Dartmouth closed the game with an 8-2 run in the final two and a half minutes to close the gap to 12 for the 73-61 final. USM forced the Corsairs into 31 turnovers, making 18 steals in the game.
USM plays again on Tuesday (January 23) when it hosts UMass Boston at 5:30 p.m. for a Little East Conference game. UMass Dartmouth host conference foe Rhode Island College on the same time and time.