NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Union College women's basketball team held a lead after one quarter of play, but UMass Dartmouth took control over the final 30 minutes to deal the Garnet Chargers a 68-49 defeat in both teams' season-opener on day one of the Lafrance Hospitality Tournament on Saturday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.
Nine players got on the scoreboard for Union (0-1) in the season-opener, led by senior
Sophia Poplyk and junior
Grace Ardito with eight points each. Senior
Emma Riley chipped in seven points and a game-high eight rebounds and senior
Jenna Forman added five points and three blocks.
The Garnet Chargers started the game strong, outscoring the Corsairs 14-9 over the opening 10 minutes. Forman netted the first bucket of the season to give Union an early lead, and the visitors outscored the home team 12-3 over the final seven minutes to take back the lead, with senior
Claudia Porto leading the team with five points.
UMass Dartmouth started the second stanza with six straight points to take back the lead, but an 11-2 run gave Union its largest lead of the game at 25-17 with 5:48 left. Baskets from Riley and junior
Grace Ceseretti started the run, followed by two-pointers from Poplyk and first-year
Olivia Cunningham and a three from Forman. However, the Corsairs closed on a 14-3 stint to take a 31-28 lead into the half.
The home team continued its run with 10 of the third quarter's first 12 points to take the first double-digit lead of the game at 41-30. The two sides played evenly for the remainder of the frame, but Union still went into the fourth down by 11 at 51-40.
An 11-1 stretch to start the fourth frame helped to put the game away for UMass Dartmouth, building up a 62-41 advantage at the midway point of the period and increasing the lead to as many as 24 before a late three by first-year
Anna O'Keefe cut into the advantage.
Union finished the night shooting 29.0 percent (18 of 62) from the field and also had a rough night at the charity stripe, connecting on only 30.0 percent (6 of 20) of its attempts. The team also turned the ball over 27 times, leading to 23 Corsair points.
Union will take on Wheaton (Mass.) College in the consolation game tomorrow at noon.
