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USM WBB vs. UMB - LEC QF
James Liebowitz
50
Southern Me. USM 18-10,12-4 Little East
94
Winner UMass Dartmouth UMD 23-4,14-2 Little East
Southern Me. USM
18-10,12-4 Little East
50
Final
94
UMass Dartmouth UMD
23-4,14-2 Little East
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Southern Me. USM 10 15 15 10 50
UMass Dartmouth UMD 22 21 22 29 94

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Christina Cracolici, Director of Athletic Communications

Little East Conference Championship: No. 1 Nationally-Ranked UMass Dartmouth Claims 2025 Title with Win Over No. 3 Southern Maine

Rookie Lucy Wiles Paces Southern Maine with 19 Points

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass.  –  Jane McAuley knocked down 10 three-pointers to score a game-high 32 points to lead the nationally-ranked and top-seeded UMass Dartmouth Corsairs to a 94-50 win over the third-seed University of Southern Maine Huskies in the championship game of the 2025 Little East Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.
 
With the win, UMD claims the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championship tournament.  Making its 27th appearance in the LEC Championship game, and first since the 2014 season, Southern Maine concludes its season with a record of 18-10.  The Huskies' 18 wins are the most since the 2018-2019 season when the Huskies finished 16-11.
 
McAuley was 10-for-13 from three for her game-high total, and led four Corsairs in double-figures.  Carley Whiteside added 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Jemima Joseph had 11 points and seven rebounds. Kaylin Zalewski had 10 points, six assists and four boards.
 
Freshman Lucy Wiles (Glenburn, Maine/Hampden Academy) led the Huskies with 19 points on 8-for-15 shooting, adding four steals. Senior Jade Smedberg (Oxford, Maine/Oxford Hills) had 12 points and rive rebounds, while graduate student Francesca Ramsdell (Wells, Maine) had eight points.  Senior Maria Degifico (South Portland, Maine) tossed in seven points off of the bench, while freshman Dakota Shipley (Bath, Maine/Brunswick) had four points, five rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot.
 
The Records:
No. 3 Southern Maine (18-10)
No. 1 UMass Dartmouth (23-4)
 
SERIES HISTORY: Today's game marked the 90th meeting between the Huskies and the Corsairs. Southern Maine leads the overall series 68-22. The Huskies and Corsairs split the 2024-2025 regular-season series with Southern Maine snapping a 14-game losing streak to UMD with a 74-68 win at home on February 15.
 
How It Happened:
  • UMass Dartmouth scored the first six points of the game and led wire-to-wire in the game.  A jumper for USM's Wiles made it an 8-5 deficit for the Huskies with 5:03 to play in the first quarter, but the Corsairs went on to outscore USM 22-10 in the opening frame.
  • Wiles hit the first basketball of the second quarter to make it a 22-12 game, but the Corsairs scored 10 straight, including a pair of threes from McAuley to extend its lead to 20, 32-12, with 7:47 to play until the halftime break. Two free throws from the Huskies'  Smedberg at the 2:22 mark had Southern Maine down by 16, 39-23, with 2:22 on the clock, but back-to-back buckets in the paint from Whiteside regained a 20-point advantage for the Corsairs 43-23 with 29 seconds left.  Wiles knocked down a jumper on the Huskies' last possession to make it a 43-25 game at the break.
  • A 10-6 run to open the third had the Corsairs ahead by 24 capped by a three from Zalewski at the 5:32 mark.  Ramsdell scored on a layup for USM and then hit two free throws to make it 53-33 with 3:30 left in the third, but the Corsairs continued to stay hot from three, and led by 29, 65-36 on another McAuley three with less than a minute to go until the fourth quarter.  Wiles went back-to-back for layups in the final two USM possessions of the third to have the Huskies trailing 65-40 headed into the final frame.
  • Continuing to assert herself Wiles scored her sixth consecutive point with a layup to start the fourth, but the Corsairs scored the next 12 straight to shut the door on the game.  Connecting on her third consecutive three of the game-ending run, McAuley had the Corsairs up big, 78-46, with 7:43 to play.  From there, UMD rolled for the 94-50 win.
 
Inside The Stats:
  • Southern Maine finished the game shooting just 27 percent (17-for-63) from the field, and made just 4-of-26 threes. UMD shot 53.2 percent (33-for-62) and canned 16 threes on 16-for-31 shooting (51.6 percent).
  • Led by McAuley's 32 points, the Corsairs' bench outscored USM's 47-7.
 
Up Next:
Southern Maine concludes its season at 18-10. The Huskies' 18 wins are the most for the program since 16 wins during the 2018-2019 season.  UMass Dartmouth earns the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship, and will learn its pairing on Monday.
 
-cac-
 
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