News Release

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. — Corsairs Pull Away in Second Half to Defeat Huskies 85-69
NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- Juniors Chris Lapriore (Grafton, Mass.), Joe Britto (Fairhaven, Mass.) and Matt McAuliffe (Sutton, Mass.) combined for 60 points as the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Corsairs defeated the University of Southern Maine Huskies 85-69 in Little East Conference action Saturday afternoon.
The Corsairs snapped a four-game losing skid with the win, and improved to 7-7 overall and
1-4 in the conference. Southern Maine slipped to 6-9 overall and 1-4 in LEC play.
The opening half was a series of momentum swings as each team enjoyed the lead. The Huskies opened a five-point advantage (11-6), their biggest of the game, when junior Mike Francoeur (Somersworth, N.H.) converted two-of-three free throws.
UMD responded with a 10-0 run to take a 16-11 lead after junior James Campbell (Marlboro, Mass.) hit a pair of free throws with 10:43 to go.
Southern Maine right came back to forge four-point leads on two occasions, the last on junior Jason Levecque’s (Westbrook, Maine) three-point field goal with 5:01 left. That shot pushed Levecque over the 1,000-career point plateau for his three-year career (one year at Keene State and two at USM).
After two lead changes and two ties, the Corsairs outscored the Huskies 7-4 over the final two minutes to take a three-point lead into the locker room.
A 12-2 run by the Corsairs to open the second half pushed the margin to 13 (54-41), and the Huskies would get no closer than 10 the rest of the way. The largest margin was 19 (76-57) when Britto buried a three-pointer.
The Huskies had no answers for Lapriore inside as the 6-foot-5 forward connected on 10 of 15 shots from the floor on the way to a team-high 22 points, and he grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Britto dropped in 5 of 9 shots, including a pair of three-pointers, and made 8 of 10 free throws for 20 points while McAuliffe finished with 18 points. Sophomore Devon Majorano (Rehobeth, Mass.) chipped in with 10 points.
Levecque was Huskies’ only offensive answer to the Corsairs attack, taking game-high scoring honors with 24 points. Junior Ryan Garland (Hermon, Maine) was the only other USM player to reach double figures finishing with 10 points.
The Huskies hit the road on Tuesday for another Little East Conference contest against the University of Massachusetts Boston. UMass Dartmouth will host Rhode Island College in an LEC tilt, also on Tuesday.