QUINCY, Mass. - UMass Boston Men's Basketball dropped their season opener 77-66 at the hands of Eastern Nazarene College on Friday night. Emmanuel Zayas led all scorers with 22 points on the night.

THE BASICS
UMass Boston 66, Eastern Nazarene College 77

UMass Boston (0-1)
Eastern Nazarene College (1-1)

HOW IT HAPPENED
An early 7-2 deficit for the Beacons quickly gave way behind the efforts of a pair of newcomers. Dom Shaw and Cameron Love each hit their first career shot to cut into the lead. Another layup for Shaw finished off the 6-0 run and gave UMass Boston an 8-7 advantage.

As the Lions built their lead back out, Zayas took over the game for the Beacons. He hit a pair of three pointers to cut into the ENC lead before hitting all three of his free throws to flip an 18-17 deficit into a 19-18 lead.

The rest of the half unfolded evenly with the Lions taking a two point lead on three different occasions and the Beacons cutting it back to even all three times. Eastern Nazarene's Elijah Melchiorre gave them a lead to sticking hitting the final shot of the half with under a minute to play to send UMass Boston into the half trailing 30-28.

Zayas and Bobby Joy were quick to hit a layup apiece out of the halftime break to give the Beacons an early 32-30 addvantage. Eastern Nazarene knotted the game at 32 and hit a three-pointer to lead but another layup from Joy and a dunk from Erik Donaldson gave the Beacons a one-point lead.

The two teams continued to trade blows early in the second half. Ish Fofana's eighth and ninth points of the night gave UMass Boston a 49-48 lead with just over nine minutes left to play. That lead, however, would be the last of the night for the Beacons. Eastern Nazarene used a 17-4 run to put the game out of reach, handing the visitors a season-opening loss, 77-66.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Despite losing their starting center and leading scorer from a year ago, the Beacons held strong in the paint scoring 34 down low to 38 for the Lions
• Zayas picked up right where he left off, pouring in 22 points to go with seven assists, both game highs
• Ish was the Beacons' second-leading scorer in his debut, knocking down five of eight from the floor to score 11 points
• 24 of the Beacons' points came from the bench and 28 came from players making their team debut
• Men's basketball has won 15 of their 22 all-time meetings with Eastern Nazarene

WHO'S NEXT
The Beacons will play their home opener at Clark Athletic Center on Tuesday, November 14 when they host Salve Regina at 7 PM.