Box Score (PDF) | Harris Interview

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Freshman Jontay Walton (Buffalo, N.Y.) scored a season-high 14 points as the UMass Lowell women's basketball team beat Vermont, 72-64, at Patrick Gymnasium on Thursday night.
 
Paced by a personal best five from Walton, the River Hawks had a season-high 16 steals which they turned in 25 points as they played spoiler on senior night for the Catamounts. The win is the River Hawks second in a row and improves their record to 13-15 overall while they finish their America East slate with a 7-9 mark. UVM falls to 5-22 overall and 2-13 in league play.
 
The River Hawks had four players score in double-figures with senior Jasmine McRoy (Gaithersburg, Md.) leading the team with 16. Walton trailed her with 14 points while Shannon Samuels (Windsor, Conn.) and Melissa Frase (Tamworth, N.H.) added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Lindsey Doucette (Hopkinton, Mass.), who played six first half minutes due to foul trouble, came up a point shy of joining the group as she finished with nine points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes.

Walton got off to a fast start against the Catamounts, picking up three steals and scoring 12 points, one shy of her season-high, by the break. The first-year guard scored in a variety of ways as she made five of her six field goal attempts, including the only three she attempted and sank all three of her free throws.

Ahead by two in the first half, the River Hawks gained some separation as they heated up from distance. Walton made her only trey from the left wing on a feed from Brianna Rudolph (Lynn, Mass.) before Rudolph connected on a triple of her own. Frase capped off the barrage from deep with the first of her three made three-pointers. Later, Doucette would find Frase in the corner for three with a beautiful touch pass in transition leading UVM head coach Lori Gear McBride to call a timeout. Walton would steal the ensuing inbound pass as the team worked the ball to Samuels in the left corner who sank her only triple to go up 47-35.
 
The Catamounts made a late push, cutting their deficit to 63-57 with just under two minutes remaining by scoring 11 unanswered points before the River Hawks made nine of 11 free throws in the final minutes to close out the game.
 
The victory over UVM gives Head Coach Jenerrie Harris the most wins for any first year head coach in program history as Harris passed Deborah Preis who had 12 wins when she took over the program during the 1976-77 season.
 
The teams eight three-pointers were the teams most since making eight five games ago against UAlbany.

Samuels and McRoy, the River Hawks two seniors, will be honored on senior night before the team plays their season finale against NJIT on March 3 at 7 p.m.