The University of Massachusetts Boston Beacons men’s and women’s basketball seasons both came to an end with losses in their respective Little East Conference tournaments.
Despite a 9-17 record, the women’s squad still had a bright spot in junior forward Raven Kelsey, whose showcase of versatility was good enough to earn her honors on the All-LEC Second Team. The men’s team, on the other hand, enjoyed a resurgence in competitiveness in Jason Harris’ second season as head coach. Their 14-13 record helped secure the program’s first winning record since the 2014-15 season, the last season for legendary head coach Charlie Titus. Both teams campaigns could not have been as good without the efforts of their individual talents.
On the women’s team would be the aforementioned Kelsey, aside from averaging nearly a double-double per game at 10.9 points and 9.5 rebounds, the real eye-popping statistic was in the steals column, as she recorded an average of 2.2 per game in that department.
Moving forward, Kelsey should be tasked upon as the leader of this team as they look to gain up in the wins-losses column next year, especially as Grace Geary and Katie Mathieu return for their senior years.
For the men’s side, there was plenty of conference accolades earned for a hard-fought and much improved campaign. Senior Sam Freeman capped off his Beacon career with First Team All-LEC honors averaging 17 points and nearly seven rebounds a game.
Fellow senior Dan Powers would be the other Beacon to earn All-LEC honors, securing a Second Team nomination. He averaged a double-double a game with nearly 12 points and 11 rebounds, with 11 double-doubles leading the team.
Iser Barnes finished his Beacon career with his first All-Conference nod with nomination to the LEC’s All-Defensive team. The honor was in large part from having quick hands to steal the ball, as he recorded over 1.5 steals per game.
While the efforts from the seniors was huge, the efforts from the Beacon freshmen talent would not go unnoticed. Alex Sanchez and Ty Lee parlayed their rookie campaigns into nominations on the conference’s All-Rookie team, forming a bedrock foundation for the future of Beacons men’s basketball. Overall, this season saw plenty of success, with the future looking nowhere but up for Harris and his program.
Both Beacon teams enjoyed impressive individual efforts with varying degrees of team success. Kristina Baugh’s women’s team have a lot to build on with its core of returning stars lead by Kelsey, as Baugh wants to improve on their win-loss record significantly in her third season on the Beacons bench.
Harris, on the other hand, might already hold the pieces to build his team into an LEC championship contender capable of earning an NCAA tournament berth. With Sanchez and Lee expected to form the nucleus of their backcourt, they may only need solid, respectable contributions from their frontcourt players in the coming years, even as Sam Freeman’s shoes may be quite big to fill for any recruit into this program.
Overall, both teams hold plenty of reasons to look up as next season gains focus.