LOWELL, Mass. – Junior forward Tiahna Sears (Bunbury, Aus.) recorded her second double-double of the season, notching 10 points and 14 rebounds, as the UMass Lowell women's basketball team (11-9, 7-0 AE) battled through a first half deficit to come back for a 61-47 victory against Vermont (9-11, 3-4 AE) on Saturday afternoon at Costello Athletic Center.
 
"It was a tough-gritted out win," commented head coach Tom Garrick. "Our players showed a lot of resilience in times where things started to look bleak, but at the half we were able to regroup and come out stronger."
 
Guard Kharis Idom (Orlando, Fla.) led the squad with 16 points, including a career-high five steals, while freshman Jaliena Sanchez (Springfield, Mass.) went 4-for-5 on the line to pitch in 15 points, respectively.
 
After the River Hawks secured the opening tip neither team was able to put up a shot, causing back-to-back turnovers until Idom downed a layup of her own, grabbing the first points with just under eight minutes to go. Adding another two points off a fast break from Sanchez the Catamounts would counter with a triple to cut the gap, 4-3.
 
Sears and freshman Shamyjha Price (Pittsburgh, Pa.) connected on a jumper and layup following the first media timeout, keeping the River Hawk lead at 8-6 with four minutes remaining on the clock. But another triple from the Catamounts would see the visiting team take the lead on a 7-0 run to close out the first quarter, 13-8.
 
Continuing their run into the early minutes of the second Vermont's Hanna Crymble and Sarah Wells put up shots from outside the arc to pull the visitors away with a 10-point lead, 20-10. The run didn't last long before a pull-up jumper from Sanchez sparked a 9-0 run for the home team, including an and-1 opportunity from senior Ren'Cia Rolling (Lansing, Ill.) to cut the deficit within seven points, 28-25, at the first half buzzer.
 
A layup from Vermont's Emma Utterback four minutes into the third gave the visitors their last lead of the contest, 35-26, as a Sears layup sparked a 13-0 run with an all-around team effort coming from Price, Idom and senior Brianne Stiers (Denver, Colo.) to give the River Hawks a slight four-point buffer, 39-35, heading into the final stretch.
 
Vermont tried to equalize the score by connecting on a three-pointer in the early seconds of the fourth, but back-to-back triples from Sanchez and Idom gave UMass Lowell the extra push they needed to extend their run to 32-7 over the final two quarters, including key shots from Stiers and Price to finish out the contest, 61-47, for the River Hawks eighth-straight victory.
 
Up next, the River Hawks will hit the road to take on the top-seeded Stony Brook on Wednesday night at the IFCU Arena, before jumping the state line to battle New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon.