By Dylan Botelho, Staff Writer
The University of Dartmouth Corsairs fought long and hard over both Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18 in the Hampton Inn Tournament.
The Corsairs swept the competition at the Tournament. They first faced Elms College on Friday, easily disposing of the Blazers in the opening round of the Hampton Inn Tournament in a 92-75 win in at the Tripp Athletic Center.
The Corsairs started on Friday with their foot on the gas. The first 15 minutes of play saw the Corsairs go on a 34-17 run. The Corsairs held a controlling 46-28 lead heading into the halftime intermission.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half was almost exactly the same way the first half began, except it was Elms College providing most of the offense. They put together a 27-17 run that pulled the Blazers within two points of equalizing the once inevitable win for the Corsairs.
The Corsairs however didn’t let their momentum fully slip, and kicked it back up to fourth gear for the remainder of the game after junior Arinze Obiora knocked down a tough lay-up through traffic. The team rallied behind the spectacular play and scored 12 unanswered points that ended in a 33-17 scoring drive, one point away from their amazing first half run, bringing us to the 92-75 final score.
While Obiora sparked the run, senior Joshua Imadiyi put it all together, scoring a team high 19 points to go along with eight rebounds. It was a total team effort in the first round though, with six Corsairs scoring 10 or more points.
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Corsairs now moved on to face Castleton in the final Championship round of the Hampton Inn Tournament. While a much closer game, the Corsairs still looked dominant against Castleton.
The Corsairs started the game down early. The Spartans went on a 7-0 run to start the game and midway through the half, were up 30-15. With only 10 minutes left though, UMass Dartmouth began to claw back into the Spartans lead, scoring 15 unanswered points to tie it up at 30 apiece.
The Corsairs finally secured their first lead of the game with 5:08 remaining in the half when first-year player Jake Ashworth nailed a three from deep.
The teams went back and forth all the way into the intermission and continued it into the second half. Ashworth put up seven points to start the half in the back to back play in the first five minutes that saw the Corsairs up 61-59.
The Corsair’s lead slowly climbed from there on out, but the game blew open when the two teams combined for 64 points in the final 10 minutes. A late comeback by Castleton fell short and the Corsair completed the victory 103-95.
After the game, the Corsair’s posed with the Hampton Inn Tournament Championship Trophy at half court of the Tripp Athletic Center.
Arinze Obiora lead the team in clutch time once again, leading the Corsairs in points with 30 and rebound with 13. The Corsairs were dominant on the glass the entire night, out-rebounding the Spartans 42-29, which was ultimately the deciding factor in the 8-point game.