WATERVILLE, Maine—Freshmen Alecia Quinones (Stoughton, Mass.) and Maritza Scott (Revere, Mass.) both posted career-highs in points, to lead women's basketball past host Colby College Tuesday night.

THE BASICS

UMass Boston 55, Colby College 49

(UMass Boston 3-2)

(Colby College 3-2)

HOW IT HAPPENED

The pair of freshmen combined for 33 of the Beacons' 55 points and UMass Boston outscored the host Mules in all four quarters, to move over .500 for the first time all season.

Quinones, who had scored 29 points in her first four collegiate games, led all scorers with 20 points in 23 minutes off the bench. She went 8-of-13 from the field, hit 2-of-3 three-point attempts and also hit two free throws.

Scott was just as efficient, as she finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in 16 minutes of action. The two freshmen teamed up with Katie Mathieu (Coventry, Conn.) to outscore the Colby bench 37-9 in bench points. Mathieu led the Beacons in assists (seven) and rebounds (six).

Chantel Jordan (Brockton, Mass.) led the Beacons starters with six points and five rebounds.

Colby's Haley Driscoll paced the hosts with 14 points and nine rebounds. Katie McCrum tacked on 13 points for the Mules, who saw their two-game winning streak come to an end.

With the exception of an early 10-3 run by Colby, the two teams were within two possessions of each other for nearly the entire contest.

Colby raced out to a 10-3 start in the opening 4:09 thank to four points each from Driscoll and Ainsley Burns.

UMass Boston answered right back with a 10-0 run of their own to grab their first lead of the contest. After Taje Burston (Springfield, Mass.) hit two free throws, Scott and Quinones combined to score the next eight points. Quinones sandwiched a layup and a pair of free throws around two Scott lay-ins to make it 13-10 with 1:16 to play in the quarter.

The Beacons led throughout the majority of the second quarter and stretched their advantage to a 30-24 lead on a Quinones three. Colby's Caitlyn Nolan cut the deficit to 30-27 at the break with a 3-pointer of her own.

Third-quarter play saw the teams combined for four ties, before the Beacons used a 6-2 run to take a 43-39 edge into the fourth quarter.

Colby cut the deficit to two points on two separate occasions early in the fourth, but it wouldn't be enough.

With the Beacons nursing a 45-43 lead with 7:43 left, UMass Boston used a 7-2 advantage to grab their largest lead of the game at 52-45. Scott opened the run with a free throw and then she and Quinones both hit layups. Jordan tacked on a lay-in of her own at 4:48 to give the Beacons a seven-point advantage.

UMass Boston hit three of four free throws in the final 30 seconds and forced three Colby turnovers down the stretch to earn the win.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Both teams finished 19-of-52 (36.5 percent) from the field and hit four 3-pointers each.
• The Beacons forced 21 Mules turnovers, compared to 13 of their own. UMass Boston used that turnover advantage to create a 17-9 edge in points off turnovers.
• In her previous four games, Scott had recorded 13 points in 36 minutes. Scott poured in 13 points in 16 minutes against Colby.
• UMass Boston used their second-straight win over Colby to improve to 3-11 all-time.

WHO'S NEXT

UMass Boston will travel to Western Connecticut State University on Saturday at 1 p.m., to open up Little East Conference play. The Beacons have defeated the Colonials in the LEC Quarterfinal Round in each of the past two seasons.