Nov. 16, 2011

Box Score

BOSTON, Mass. - Despite a valiant comeback in the second half, women's basketball (0-1) was unable to close the gap on the scoreboard, as they fell to Eastern Nazarene College (1-0) by the final score of 58-46 Wednesday evening in the Clark Athletic Center.

Led by a game-high 20 points from Ace Carradine, the Lions were able to pull away from the Beacons in the first half, as they closed out the first 20 minutes of play with a 31-22 lead.  Carradine also got help from Shardae Brown, who had 15 points on the night and Dianna Bonds who had 11 points in the season opener.  Alexis Malloy fueled Eastern Nazarene on the boards as she pulled down a game-high 14 boards.

For the Beacons, their season debut saw Tasha Bernardez (Roxbury, Mass.) come off the bench to score a team-high 13 points.  Behind her was Teresa Pina (Boston, Mass.) with eight points to her name.  Elizabeth Dow (Marshfield, Mass.) was the Beacons top rebounder with eight boards. 

Through the first 10 minutes of Wednesday's game, the two teams battled for control of the scoreboard.  Eastern Nazarene got their largest lead of the game at that point following a lay-up from Bonds to make it 17-12.  The Beacons would cut that lead down to one on two different occasions.  Eastern Nazarene would respond with four quick points to retake their five point lead on the scoreboard.

Following a jumper from Bernardez which at the time made it just a three point game (23-20), the visiting Lions closed out the final four minutes of play on a 8-2 run to go into the locker room with the nine point lead. 

After the break, the Lions continued to gain some breathing room scoring the first four points of the half to make it a 13 point game (35-22).  They would eventually push their lead up to 19 points, after an Abbie Tonello lay-up (45-26). 

Even with time winding, the Beacons never gave-up as they began to chip away at Eastern Nazarene's lead.  Unfortunately, despite their best efforts UMass Boston was never able to get the Lions lead to less than 10 points.  Bernardez helped to fuel the late rally, as well as Shelby Buck (Greenfield, Ohio), who hit the Beacons last 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining.  Wednesday's game marked the return of Buck, who was only able to play 10 games last season for UMass Boston before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

Women's basketball returns to action on Friday when they host Berkeley College (N.Y.) at 5:30 p.m. in game-one of the 2011 UMass Boston Tip-Off Tournament.