PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The UMass Dartmouth men's basketball team rallied back to defeat Rhode Island College, 77-68, on the road in Little East Conference (LEC) action on Wednesday night from The Murray Center. The Corsairs secured their fourth conference victory to improve to a 4-7 LEC mark while the Anchormen dropped to 8-4 in league play.
 
The Anchormen jumped out to an early 9-2 lead in the opening three minutes of the game with graduate student Isaac Percy making the first bucket for the contest for the Corsairs. After Percy banked in a step-back jumper, junior Josh Lopes drained a basket from behind the arc to make it a 9-7 score with 15:35 on the clock. First year Danny Reyes posted his first points of the night after finishing a driving layup soon followed by a good bucket from graduate student Michael Eurquhart Jr. to bring UMass Dartmouth within three points of Rhode Island.
 
At the 13:00 mark, Isaiah Dahl clipped in a triple for the Anchormen to go ahead 17-13, but junior Cam Dunbury answered by finishing an alley-oop from Reyes. After the first year guard knocked down a three-pointer to cut Rhode Island's lead down to one-point, the Anchormen went on an 11-2 run to claim a 30-21 advantage. Both teams continued to exchange buckets for the remainder of the half, but Dahl gave the Anchormen a 38-29 lead at the break after sinking a late triple.
 
The Corsairs rallied in the final ten minutes of the second half for the comeback victory that was kick started by DiChiara. The rookie guard scored seven straight points, finished off by a triple at the 8:02 mark, to give UMass Dartmouth a 56-54 edge over the Anchormen. Reyes went 4-for-4 from the line to keep the Corsairs ahead before Percy knocked down a three-pointer to make it a 63-58 game.
 
Junior Josh Lopes clipped in a shot from distance to extend UMass Dartmouth's advantage to 66-60 with under four minutes remaining in the contest. Percy finished a tough turnaround jump shot to put the Corsairs up by nine points. UMass Dartmouth sealed their fourth league win of the season after making 4-of-6 shots from the charity stripe in the final seconds of the game to defeat the Anchormen by a final score of 77-68.
 
Lopes led the team with 20 points (6-12 FG, 3-5 3-FG, 5-8 FT) to go along with three assists, two rebounds, and a pair of steals. Reyes scored a career-high 17 points in the win going 6-of-10 from the field with one three-pointer and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. The rookie guard also recorded five assists, two boards, and two steals. Percy ended the game with 15 points (6-12 FG, 3-7 3-FG) clipping in three triples with five rebounds, one assist, and a steal. DiChiara also scored in double figures with 14 points going 5-for-10 from the floor and 1-for-5 from behind the arc. He also hauled in seven rebounds and posted a team-high four steals. Eurquhart Jr. grabbed 11 rebounds, five offense and six defense, to go along with four points, three steals, and two assists.
 
UMass Dartmouth return home for their next Little East tilt hosting Vermont State University Castleton on Saturday, Feb. 8 starting at 2:00 p.m. from the Tripp Athletic Center.