Box Score Recap courtesy of UMass Boston
BOSTON – Led by Vincent Pace's 22 points, the 22nd ranked Jumbos of Tufts University defeated UMass Boston by the final of 74-61 Tuesday evening in men's basketball action at the Clark Athletic Center Gymnasium.
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| Sophomore Ben Engvall contributed seven points off the bench |
The Jumbos, who moved into the D3hoops national poll this week, improved to 9-2 with their sixth consecutive victory. UMass Boston fell to 5-6.
Looking to pull off an upset, the Beacons played an extremely hard-fought game from start to finish. At two different points the Beacons took leads over their nationally-ranked crosstown rivals, but were unable to keep the momentum in their corner.
Pace led the Jumbos on his 8-for-11 shooting from the field and he also had seven rebounds with three assists. The newly named Division III National Player of the Week, Tom Palleschi finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, and seven blocked shots. Palleschi became the Jumbo program's all-time leader in blocks with 151. He passed Khari Brown's 150 from 1990-94.
Senior Stephen Haladyna chipped in with seven points and six rebounds. Senior Ryan Spadaford grabbed nine rebounds while junior Tarik Smith finished with six assists.
Sophomore guard Maurice Magras continued his impressive play as he dropped in a game-high 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, which included a 4-for-5 showing from 3-point range. At the line he was also 4-for-5. Fellow guard Quadry Allen finished second on the team with 13 points, while off the bench Kevin Louis-Jean finished with 10.
Junior forward Dan Powers grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, and also finished with seven points to lead the Beacons' bench. Junior guard Iser Barnes notched a game-high six assists, and had two steals.
At no point in the first half did the Jumbos really take control of the scoreboard. UMass took advantage of all of their possessions to keep the deficit to single digits for the first 20 minutes. The Beacons notched their first lead of the evening when they posted an 8-2 run with just over seven minutes to play before the intermission. Tufts would respond with a run of their own to make it a seven-point game with 4:08 left.
However with 3-pointers from Allen and Powers, along with a lay-up by Allen, the Beacons regained their one point lead with 2:33 left before halftime. The Jumbos closed out the first half with a 7-0 run to go into the locker room with a 41-35 lead.
After the break, UMass managed to weather an early run by Tufts and cut the deficit back to one at the midway point of the second half. However that would be the closest the Beacons would come to retaking the lead, as Tufts managed to push their lead to double-digits for only the second time on the night to secure the victory.
Tufts University now leads the all-time series 33-9 and have won the last 12 meetings with the Beacons.
The Jumbo start NESCAC play this weekend hosting Bowdoin on Friday night at 7 pm and Colby on Saturday at 2 pm. The Beacons will travel to Bridgewater State University on Thursday for a 5:30 pm non-conference game.
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