UMass Lowell Routs Emerson, 105-53

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The final score of Saturday afternoon’s game at Costello Athletic Center would suggest the game was a blowout from start to finish. That was hardly the case. The UMass Lowell River Hawks (4-1) had a four-point lead at the half at 41-37. Their head coach, Pat Duquette, was not happy with the way the first twenty minutes were played by his team. He would make it clear to his team at halftime, and they got the message as the second half was played at a much higher level.

Make no mistake about it, Emerson (1-3) came to play. That should come as no surprise because of the person leading this team. Bill Curley was a great college basketball player at Boston College. In fact, his number hangs at Conte Forum. He also spent some time in the NBA with Minnesota. He has brought toughness to the Emerson program and its shows. The final score of 105-53 may have been expected, but getting there was not.

UMass Lowell had six players in double figures, led by junior Max Brooks who battled all game long with Emerson’s big man Jarred Houston. Brooks’ double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds was well-earned. He also had three blocked shots to add to his game. After the game, Brooks said, “he likes to battle in the post against good big men.” On Saturday he got his wish.

The first half started with Brooks scoring the first four points for the River Hawks on a short jumper in the lane, then a layup going to the basket. However, it was Emerson who had the early lead thanks to back-to-back 3-point makes from James Beckwith. The game was tied at the first media timeout because of a basket from Connor Withers who made the start on Saturday. After the timeout, he hit a free throw to give his team the lead by one at 7-6. Emerson scored the next four points to take the lead back at 10-7 on baskets by Nate Martin and Brendan McNamara. Houston for Emerson and Brooks for Lowell traded baskets to keep it close. Ayinde Hikim (10 points, 4 assists) gave Lowell the lead back at 13-12 with 13:15 left in the half. Lowell would extend the lead to five on hoops by Brooks and Everette Hammond. Hikim hit another jumper and Lowell had a seven-point lead at 19-12 with 10:57 to play.

The second half of the first saw Emerson starting to as coach Duquette said afterward “feel real comfortable out there.” Trevor Arico (10 points) and McNamara hit consecutive threes to cut the lead to four at 26-22 with 7:44 left. Arico hit another three and it was a one-point game at 28-27 with 6:14 to go. The teams traded baskets the rest of the way with Lowell taking the four point lead with them to the locker room at 41-37.

In the second half, the River Hawks played their style of basketball and wore down their opponent. UMass Lowell would score 64 points on 75% shooting (24-of-32) while holding Emerson to 21.9% shooting (7-of-32). The River Hawks were 6-of-8 from behind the arc, and Emerson was 0-9 from deep. Lowell scored points from the foul line hitting 10-of-13 (76.9%).

UMass Lowell was doing everything that the coach preached about coming into the contest. It just took a half for it to sink in with his players. The game got so one-sided it allowed for a couple of things to take place. First, graduate guard Mikey Watkins joined the 1,000-point club in the second half. After playing four years at Merrimack, Watkins chose Lowell to play one more year because “they have faith in me” and he likes the depth this team has. The big lead also allowed the coach to go deep into his bench and allow Cam Morris III to get some runs. He responded by scoring 10 points in nine minutes of action. The River Hawks also received double-figures from Allin Blunt with 11, Yuri Covington with 13, and Quinton Mincy with 13, Next up for the River Hawks is a trip to Brown the night before Thanksgiving.

It was a doubleheader day at Costello. The River Hawks (0-4) women’s team was also in action. They would lose to Brown (3-2) by a 67-56 count. The Lady River Hawks got a monster game from senior Kaylen Banwareesingh who scored 31 points on 12-21 from the field and 7-8 from the free throw line. She added 14 rebounds for her fourth-career double-double and her first of this season. The 31 points tie her for second place with the most points scored in the division one era. She is tied with Shannon Samuels who dropped 31 on Bryant on December 10, 2014. Samuels did this twice during her River Hawks career. Lowell had a 29-20 lead at the half, but Brown ran away with the third quarter outscoring Lowell by a 36-12 margin. Brown was led by Kyla Jones with 29 points (11-of-18, 7-of-9 from the FT line). She was one of three double-figure scores for Brown. Next up for the ladies is a home game on Tuesday night vs Massachusetts at Costello at 6 PM.