KINGSTON, R.I. – Behind a season-high 20 points from senior Megan Zullo (Greenville, N.C./Farmville/N.C. State), the UMass women’s basketball team used a gritty defensive effort in a come-from-behind win over Rhode Island, 46-39, at the Ryan Center on Wednesday evening. With the victory, which marked the first time the Minutewomen held an opponent under 40 since Feb. 11, 2005 at Dayton, the squad moves to 6-11 on the year and 1-1 in the Atlantic 10. Following the loss, the Rams are now 1-16 on the season and 0-2 in conference play.
Zullo, who used a 6-for-10 clip from three-point range help her to her fourth career 20-point game, single-handedly outscored URI in the second half with 14 points to the Rams’ 13. Junior Jasmine Watson (South Bend, Ind./South Bend Washington) followed with seven points, five boards, three blocks and three steals. Watson logged her 100th career block in the contest, becoming just the fifth player in program history to reach the milestone. Junior Shakia Robinson (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) chipped in a team-best four assists and six rebounds, while redshirt-sophomore Carolann Cloutier (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College/Old Dominion) had five points, six rebounds and two assists.
UMass led early in the first half as Zullo hit her first trey of the night at the 13:42 mark to give the Minutewomen an 8-5 advantage. However, Rhode Island responded with a 12-1 run to go ahead by eight, 17-9, with 8:35 remaining in the period. Then at the 4:26 mark, a jumper by Sherrie Session gave the Rams their largest lead of the night, nine, at 22-13. UMass strung together a 7-2 stretch to pull within four of URI, but Corinne Coia put in a layup with 51 seconds left to push the Rhode Island advantage to 26-20 at the break.
Coming out of the intermission, Emilie Cloutier’s basket at the 18:06 mark made it an eight-point lead for the Rams, but the UMass defense would hold URI without another point for the next 6:03 as the Minutewomen closed the gap to two, 28-26. Two straight buckets by URI pushed the margin back to six before an 8-2 UMass run leveled the score at 34 with 7:22 to play.
Chari Lehnertz answered with a basket at the other end to briefly put the Rams back in front, while Session’s jumper at 4:44 put the Rams in front for the final time. Zullo then hit her second of three straight threes for the Minutewomen on top for good at the 4:25 mark. Carolann Cloutier converted three of her four trips to the line in the final 32 seconds to help secure the win for UMass.
The Minutewomen shot 14-for-51 (27.5%) overall on the evening, 7-for-21 (33.3%) from three and made 11-of-16 free throws (68.8%). The Rams made 17-of-52 (32.7%) overall, were just 1-of-3 (33.3%) from three and were 4-for-8 (50%) at the charity stripe. Rebounding was even at 37 apiece.
Ashley Rivera finished as URI’s leading scorer with nine points, while Session followed with eight and a game-best nine rebounds.
The Minutewomen will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 14, when the squad will play host to Richmond at 1:30 p.m. in the first half of a UMass Basketball doubleheader at the Mullins Center
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