GORHAM, Maine—UMass Boston women's basketball outscored the University of Southern Maine 18-6 in the third quarter, to earn a 68-55 win over the hosts on Wednesday night at Hill Gymnasium.

THE BASICS

UMass Boston 68, Southern Maine 55

(UMass Boston 16-3, Little East 7-3)

(Southern Maine 9-10, Little East 4-6)

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Beacons put together one of their best shooting performances of the season and 11 different players scored in the victory.

Juniors Geanna Williams (Cromwell, Conn.) and Tahjai Mazyck (Hamden, Conn.) tied for the team-high with 12 points apiece. Williams finished 5-8 from the field and pulled down eight rebounds. Mazyck went 5-9 from the field and hit two of her three 3-point attempts.

Joie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) chipped in nine points, to go along with a team-high nine rebounds and four steals. Jalani Jackson (Brockton, Mass.) added eight points, five assists and four rebounds in the win.

Southern Maine junior Kristen Curley led all players with 15 points and four blocks. Victoria Harris tacked on 14 points and Jackie Luckhardt registered six points and a game-high 10 rebounds in the loss.

After UMass Boston leapt out to an 8-4 lead 3:05 into the game, Southern Maine used an 8-0 run to take 12-8 lead midway through the first quarter. The Beacons fought back to regain the lead on a Maia Daugherty (Boston, Mass.) 3-pointer, only for Southern Maine to close the quarter on a 6-0 run.

The Huskies took their largest lead of the game 16 seconds into the second, when Curley capped off the Huskies 8-0 flurry (22-15).

UMass Boston got right back into the game with a 12-2 run of their own. Mazyck and Williams combined for the first nine points of the run, before Jackson hit a 3-pointer to make it 33-29 with 3:54 left in the half.

Southern Maine cut the deficit to one on two occasions, but Alecia Quinones (Stoughton, Mass.) hit a jumper late in the quarter to give the Beacons a 3-point cushion going into the break (36-33).

UMass Boston took control of the game to begin the third.

Mazyck opened the half with a 3-pointer and Jamie Staples (Amherst, Mass.) grabbed an offensive rebound and a hit a three of her own on the next possession. After a Southern Maine timeout, Mazyck hit a running layup to give the Beacons their first double-digit lead of the game (41-33).

UMass Boston built their lead to 54-39 on a Grassi three with 2:16 to go in the quarter and then held the Huskies scoreless the rest of the stanza.

Southern Maine opened the fourth on a 4-0 run, but Williams and Kaylee Haynes (Bridgewater, Mass.) hit back-to-back baskets to push the lead back to 13 with 4:21 to play.

BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston posted their second-highest, field goal percentage of the season in the win (45.3 percent). The Beacons also hit their third-most 3-pointers in a game this year (nine) and shot above 40 percent from beyond the arc for the fourth time this season (40.9 percent).
• The Beacons earned their second-ever, regular-season sweep of Southern Maine. UMass Boston went 3-0 against the Huskies during the 2017-18 season.
• Williams and Haynes (six points) helped the Beacons earn a 29-14 edge in bench points.
• With the win, UMass Boston improves to 9-68 all-time against the Huskies. The Beacons have won nine of the last 12 meetings, including five-straight in Gorham.
• Mazyck went over 600 career points (601) in the victory.

WHO'S NEXT

UMass Boston will host second-place Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Warriors defeated the Beacons 88-54 on January 4 in Connecticut.