With the win, UMass Dartmouth improves to 13-8 overall and 64 in the Little East Conference.  The loss drops Southern Maine's record to 6-15 overall and 2-8 in the LEC.

 Sophomore Wale Abraham (Lynn, Mass.) led all scorers with 18 points on a perfect 8-for-8 effort from the field.  He added 10 rebounds for the double-double.  Freshmen Ryan Walsh (North Dighton, Mass./Dighton Rehoboth), Tucker Bouchard (Kingston, Mass./Silver Lake) and  junior Jake Laga (Northampton, Mass.) each scored 11 points, with Bouchard handing out a game-high five assists.  Sophomore Abi Akanni (Fitchburg, Mass.) tossed in 10 points to round out the scoring for the Corsairs.

Senior Tyler Penney (Barnstead, N.H./Bishop Brady) led the Huskies with 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting.  Senior Conor Sullivan (Scarborough, Maine) added nine points, seven rebounds and two assists.  Sophomores Darius Bradford (Rosenburg, Texas/Lamar Consolidated) and Jacob Littlefield (Mehanic Falls, Maine/Poland) each scored nine points off of the bench.

Ahead by five at the break, 37-32, the Corsairs outscored the Huskies 14-5 in the opening nine minutes of the second stanza to grab a 51-37 lead with 11:08 to play.  Abraham, Akanni, Bouchard, Laga and Walsh all figured in the scoring for the Corsairs in the game-separating run.

A three from Littlefield stemmed the Corsiars run making it a 51-40 game in favor of UMD with 10:52 to play, but the Corsairs scored the next six points to open up its largest lead of the game 57-40 on a traditional three-point play from Akanni and a three from Bouchard.

The Corsairs led by 18 with 3:13 left in regulation before USM made a run outscoring UMass Dartmouth 8-0 in the closing moments but it wasn't enough as the Corsairs held for the win.

Southern Maine travels to Plymouth State on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).  UMass Dartmouth hosts UMass Boston on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).

–cac–