DARTMOUTH, Mass.—UMass Boston women's basketball's "Big Three" combined for 63 points, to lead the Beacons past rival UMass Dartmouth 81-73 on Thursday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.

THE BASICS

UMass Boston 81, UMass Dartmouth 73

(UMass Boston 11-2, Little East 3-2)
(UMass Dartmouth 7-7, Little East 2-3)

HOW IT HAPPENED

Joie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.), Jalani Jackson (Brockton, Mass.) and Tahjai Mazyck (Hamden, Conn.) all came up big, to lead the Beacons to their fourth-straight win on the Corsairs' home floor.

Grassi became the ninth player in school history to reach 1,000 career points, when she hit a pair of free throws with 7:46 remaining in regulation. She needed 19 points to reach 1,000 coming into the game and recorded 16 in the first half. For the game, Grassi finished with 21 points on 6-14 shooting and she hit all three of her 3-point attempts and went 6-8 from the free throw line. She also added 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Jackson put together an outstanding second half. The junior recorded 25 of her game-high 27 points in the second stanza. She ended the game 11-18 from the field, 3-6 from the 3-point line and 2-2 from the charity stripe.

Mazyck added 14 of her 18 points in the second half and chipped in five rebounds and four assists.

Senior Alecia Quinones (Stoughton, Mass.) posted a line of five points and eight rebounds and junior Kailee Gautier (Newark, Del.) finished with six points and five rebounds.

UMass Dartmouth senior Ashley Brown led the hosts with 19 points and nine rebounds. Jordan Moretti chipped in with 13 points and five assists and Meagan Donovan finished with 10 points and four blocks.

UMass Boston got off to a slow start to open the contest. The Beacons needed over four minutes to score their first points and they didn't score for the final 3:08 of the quarter, to go into the second quarter trailing 12-9.

The Beacons found their offensive game from there, as they scored 22 or more points in each of the final three quarters.

After trailing by one or two possessions for most of the second, UMass Boston went on a 7-0 run to take their first lead in over 10 minutes of game action. The Corsairs took the lead right back, but UMass Boston used a 5-0 run, capped by a Mazyck lay-in, to take a 31-29 lead into halftime.

After the two teams saw their score tied five times in the first 4:14 of the second half, UMass Boston went on a 8-1 run to take the lead for good. Gautier opened the flurry with a layup and Jackson followed by knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, to give the Beacons a 50-43 advantage with 4:40 left in the third.

The hosts cut the deficit to one late in the quarter, but a Mazyck layup gave the Beacons a 56-53 lead after three.

UMass Boston scored five of the first six points to open the fourth quarter and pushed their lead out to nine (65-56 with 7:18 to play). The Corsairs cut the deficit to as few as five with 5:29 to play, but the Beacons held the hosts to just one made basket over the next 5 minutes, to cruise to an 81-73 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Grassi is just the ninth player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and the second under fifth-year head coach Kristina Baugh. She needs just 10 points to move into seventh all-time (1,012).
• The Beacons finished the game shooting 40.6 percent (28-69) from the field, 30 percent (6-20) from distance and 79.2 percent (19-24) from the free throw line.
• With the win, UMass Boston has now won three of the past four meetings with their rivals and the Beacons trail the all-time series against UMass Dartmouth 53-29.
• UMass Boston earned a 50-32 advantage in rebounds and a 19-6 lead in offensive boards. The Beacons turned that lead into an 18-4 edge in second-chance points.
• For her career, Grassi is averaging 20 points per game in four career road games against UMass Dartmouth (Beacons are 3-1 in those games).
• Thursday's win marked the Beacons' first road conference win of the year. The Beacons only two prior losses this season came in road conference games.

WHO'S NEXT  

UMass Boston will look to move to 3-0 on the week, when they travel to Clark University on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.