Sophomore G Akeem Williams  (Brockton, Mass.) compiled 25 points, five assists and five rebounds to lead UMass Lowell over Assumption College, 72-69, Saturday afternoon in a Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball clash at the Laska Gymnasium.

The win was UMass Lowell's third straight and sixth in its last seven games as it improved to 12-5 overall and 8-5 in the NE-10. The River Hawks visit Saint Rose Wednesday (7:30) and return home next Saturday to host the University of New Haven (4:00).

"That was a hard-fought road conference win and it was well deserving," said head coach Greg Herenda. "We gutted it out as a team and beat an Assumption team that played great basketball today."

The loss was the fourth straight for Assumption, which slipped to 7-10 overall and 5-8 in the NE-10.

Williams converted 7 of 8 free throws and scored 17 of his points in the second half while senior G Dipanjot Singh(Evanston, Ill.) came off the bench to score 15 points on 4-8 field goal shooting, 4-6 from 3-point range. Sophomore F Antonio Bivins (Miami, Fla.) chipped in 11 points and three rebounds on 3-5 field goals and 4-6 free throws.

"Dipanjot was great in the first half and Akeem bounced back and we needed all of his 25 points," Herenda noted.

Senior G Kevin Donohue led four players in double figures for Assumption with 21 points while freshman F Jimmy Zenevitch added 17 points and seven rebounds, hitting 5-10 field goals and 7-8 free throws.

Junior F Tim Beinert chipped in 15 points and six rebounds while shooting 6-11 and sophomore G Cory Schmidt 11 points and five rebounds.

Led by four treys from Singh, UMass Lowell outscored Assumption from 3-point range, 33-15, as the River Hawks shot 11-22 while Assumption struggled to a 5-22 clip.

Assumption won the battle under the glass, outrebounding UMass Lowell 40-28 and 15-4 offensively. The Greyhounds outscored the River Hawks 22-2 on second chances.

Turnovers were even at 14-14, but it was UMass Lowell which capitalized, outscoring the Greyhounds 15-6 off mistakes to buffer their rebounding edge.

UMass Lowell led 64-57 with 5:30 left to play when Singh meshed a pair of free throws, but Assumption came back with an 8-2 spurt - led by four points from Schmidt and a trey by Beinert - to pull within a point (66-65) with 2:51 left to play.

The River Hawks maintained their edge behind a huge 3-point basket by Bivins with 1:52 left and a pair of free throws by Williams with 1:16 remaining.

Assumption cut the lead to 71-69 on two free throws by Zenevitch, but Singh converted the first of two free throws with 10 seconds left to seal the win.

UMass Lowell led at the break, 37-32.