Men’s Basketball Falls To UMass Dartmouth, 81-69

The men's basketball team was upended by UMass Dartmouth, 81-69 in a non-conference contest at the Tripp Athletic Center on Tuesday evening.

Johnson & Wales was led by senior Lamonte Thomas (Providence, R.I.) with 31 points, 10 rebounds and six assists while junior Mike Harris (Providence, R.I.) and fellow junior David Storti (Exeter, R.I.) each had 13 points in the setback for the Wildcats.

Lance Greene paced UMass Dartmouth with 23 points and 14 rebounds while Eleazor Clayton notched 18 points and 10 boards in the victory for the Corsairs.

Johnson & Wales controlled the action early and led 14-7 on a three-point play by Harris with just over 11 minutes left in the first half.  The host Corsairs then used an 11-4 run, capped by a layup by Jake Laga to knot the game at 18-18 with 7:57 left in the first half.  The two teams then traded leads with the game knotted 31-31 with 2:39 on the clock.  JWU scored the last six points of the half to take the 37-31 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

The Wildcats grabbed their first double-figure lead of the game when a pair of free throws by Thomas made the score 57-47 with 12:39 remaining.  UMass Dartmouth then used a 13-2 run, capped by a three-pointer by Rose to take the 60-59 lead with 6:49 left in the second half.  UMD then took control of the action down the stretch and cruised to the 81-69 victory.

With the loss JWU falls to 2-7 for the season while UMass Dartmouth improves to 7-3 on the season.  The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday, December 17^th when they host Maine-Fort Kent in a non-conference contest, starting at 3:00 p.m.