DARTMOUTH, Mass.  –   Up by just three points, 74-71, with 1:20 to play, the No. 24-ranked UMass Dartmouth Corsairs used a layup from John Martins and a 5-for-6 effort from the free throw line down the stretch to hold off the University of Southern Maine Huskies 81-75 in a quarterfinal game of the 2022 Little East Conference men's basketball tournament championship. 
 
The 2022 LEC regular season champs and the no. 1 seed in the tournament, UMass Dartmouth was led by a game-high 19 points from Jake Ashworth, including a 4-for-4 mark from the free throw line in the last 15 seconds of the game for the win.
 
The Records: 
Southern Maine (10-17)
UMass Dartmouth (23-3)
 
Series History:  Facing each other for the 81^st time in series history, UMass Dartmouth leads the Huskies 70-11.  UMass Dartmouth took the regular season sweep over Southern Maine. 
 
Standout Huskies: Junior Cody Hawes (Carmel, Maine/Hermon)  14 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals; sophomore Chance Dixon (Lake Worth, Fla./Santaluces) 14 points, 3 rebounds; sophomore Trevor Ward (West Park, Fla./McArthur) 14 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal;  senior Jason Lombard (Anchorage, Alaska/Chugiak) 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block; ; sophomore Clay Kuhn (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park) 11 points, 2 blocks.
 
Standout Corsairs:  Jake Ashworth 19 points, 4 rebounds; Marcus Azor 18 points, 7 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks; Adam Seablom 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists; Jackson Zancan 10 points, 4 rebounds.
 
How It Happened: 

•  Trailing by six at the half, 40-34, Southern Maine opened the second half outscoring the Corsiars 9-4 to trail by a point, 44-43, with 18:11 left in regulation to set the tempo for the rest of the game.  Dixon opened the scoring with a three, and Hawes closed the run with back-to-back scores in the paint.
• The Corsairs opened their lead back up to three possession, 54-45, with an 8-2 run capped by a jumper from Zancan at the 15:04 mark and led by as many as 12 points, 74-62, with 3:17 to play following one of two free throws from Azor.
• Down by a dozen, the Huskies rattled off nine unanswered points over the next two minutes to trail 74-71. Dixon scored four of his 14 in the rally, while Ward had three, and senior Marcus Christopher (Skowhegan, Maine) had two.
• Leading by a single possession, Martins grabbed a crucial offensive rebound and scored the put-back to stop the Huskies run. USM's Lombard had the Huskies' back to within four, 77-73 with a Fastbreak layup at the 20 second mark, but UMass Dartmouth went 4-for-4 on its free throws to seal the 81-75 win.

 
Inside the Stats: 

• Led by 11 points from Kuhn, USM's bench outscored the Corsairs' bench 17-13.
• UMass Dartmouth scored 26 of its 81 points off of Husky turnovers.  USM finished the game with 19 turnovers. The Corsairs had 12.

 
Up Next: 
After posting its first LEC playoff win since the 2013 season, Southern Maine's loss at UMass Dartmouth concludes their 2021-2022 season..  
 
 Southern Maine Athletics has gone to fully digital game programs, please click this link to access the game programs to future Husky home events!