Massachusetts Outlasts Rhode Island, 57-53

KINGSTON, R.I. – University of Massachusetts women's basketball never trailed, but the Minutewomen had to weather a late charge by Rhode Island en route to a 57-53 win on Saturday at the Ryan Center. With the win, the Minutewomen close out the regular season at 15-15 and 7-9 and the Atlantic 10. The overall total are the most by the Maroon and White since the 2006-07 squad collected 17 wins, while that same year the program recorded seven victories in the conference.

The Minutewomen now await the results of Saturday's other games across the Atlantic 10, which will announce First Round pairings later in the evening for games to be played on Tues., March 5.

Junior Vashnie Perry shot 6-of-11 from the field to lead the Minutewomen with 15 points, complemented by nine points from freshman Destiney Philoxy. Junior Hailey Leidel grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in the win.

In part helped by a 6-of-12 showing in the first quarter the Minutewomen closed the period with an 18-8 lead. After a back-and-forth stretch out of the opening tip, Massachusetts built an 8-2 run over the final three minutes capped by three free throws from Philoxy.

Senior Genesis Rivera sparked the visiting squad in the second quarter with a quick pair of early triples, forcing the Rams into a timeout with the score at 24-14 in favor of UMass. Five of Perry's 15 points came in that stanza as the squad carried a 32-22 lead into halftime.

URI mounted a late comeback effort in the fourth quarter and cut the UMass lead to as little as three multiple times. Off of an errant pass in the final two minutes, Davida Dale made a fast break layup to cut the advantage to 56-53, bringing UMass into a timeout. After a sequence of empty possessions both ways, Leidel sealed the win at the free throw line with two seconds left.

For Rhody (8-20, 3-13 A-10), Elemy Colome contributed a game-high 16 points while Dale narrowly missed a double-double effort with 10 points to go with nine rebounds. Colome handed out five assists, Dale logged four steals and Dina Motrechuk had five blocks.

As a team, the Minutewomen tied a season-high with a 53.3 (8-of-15) three-point field goal percentage, part of a 20-of-26 (43.5 percent) day overall from the field.

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Scoreboard

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Team Stats

Vashnie Perry

Destiney Philoxy

Genesis Rivera

Bre Hampton-Bey

Players Mentioned

Hailey Leidel

Vashnie Perry

Destiney Philoxy

Genesis Rivera

Players Mentioned

Hailey Leidel

Vashnie Perry

Destiney Philoxy

Genesis Rivera

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics