UMass Boston hosted their biggest battle of the year, to date, on Wednesday, Feb 5, at the Clark Center against a Little East Conference rival in Southern Maine. The Beacons brought in a 5-6 conference record, seeded fourth, while the Huskies held the same 4-5 marking. In a tightly contested conference, the fifth seeded Huskies would take over the Beacons spot—and gain home court advantage, for the moment—with a win.
Senior guard Emanuel Zayas stamped a Beacons win late in the fourth quarter with a cunning crossover leading to a fadeaway jumper to give UMass Boston a two possession lead with just 10 seconds remaining. Zayas cleaned the court with a trip to the line eight seconds after his dagger, and the Beacons won with a final score of 87-82.
Zayas struggled from the field, 8-18 overall and 1-9 from three, but, as head coach Jason Harris said, “Manny loves hero ball,” and he came through for a “tough, big win.” Zayas had been struggling with an illness for a couple days prior and hadn’t practiced or played since their win against Rhode Island College on Feb. 1.
Harris went back to his double big line-up with Mark Barrett and Tyler Victor down low, now for the fourteenth straight time. And this time, it worked outstandingly. The Beacons beat Southern Maine by a margin of 16-6 on the offensive glass. Victor grabbed five of those, and Barrett, who had one, totaled 10 defensive boards. 26 points scored between them, to go along.
The two bigs amplified the Beacons’ stout defense on the Little East’s top two scorers, Bryce Lauser and Thomas Whelan—at least they were before the final buzzer. Barrett blocked two shots and stole three, and Jason Harris talked about how he and Victor are “finally getting comfortable on defense, and are really bailing each other out.”
Senior forward Anthony Gauthier had a block and three steals in 18 minutes off the bench, and rising star Raphel Laurent took two away, as well. Laurent was locking up the Huskies all night on the perimeter, specifically Bryce Lauser, who at the time led the conference in scoring. Lauser came into the contest averaging 22.4 points, but just finished with 12 on 5-16 shooting. He played 38 minutes, and spent much of the night speaking with the officials. The handsy UMass Boston defense frustrated the whole Husky squad.
Raphel Laurent continues to emerge for the Beacons, he had seven rebounds and 18 points on the offensive end. The freshman is up to 12.6 points per game this year, and has slotted in as a regular starter as of late.
The Beacons would go on to fall by a whopping score of 116-87, on Saturday, Feb. 8, in their following game against the first seeded—and undefeated in LEC play—Keene State Owls. Octavio Brito dropped 42 on UMass Boston, and worked his way to be the new leading LEC scorer at 23.3 points per game.
Xavier McKenzie led the Beacons with 28 points, Emanuel Zayas struggled and had just eight.
UMass Boston now, after giving up their largest sum of 116 points on the year, still control the fourth seed in the LEC with a 6-7 conference record, and 11-10 overall.
This article appeared in print on Page 6 of Vol. LIX Issue X, published Feb. 10, 2025.
