Trevor Cullen
Connector Editor

Winter break is abbreviated for all college athletes, as their respective team schedules resume after around a week or two of vacation time. For the men’s basketball team, a consistent schedule of games was good for them over break, as they won their first ever game against an America East foe, with a 59-54 victory over University of Maryland Baltimore County.

What could be considered the game of winter break, out of any UMass Lowell athletic team, was the men’s basketball team’s overtime win against another America East opponent, the University of Albany. A gutsy performance by the River Hawks led to a thrilling 70-66 victory at the Costello Athletic Center.

“I’m not just happy for the win, but for the way we won,” Head Coach Pat Duquette said to goriverhawks.com. “I thought it was a really gut-wrenching, tough, hard played game against a tough and physical Albany team and our guys responded.”

The River Hawks trailed for almost the entire game, but senior Kerry Weldon converted a clutch layup and free throw to cut Albany’s lead to one point with just 22 seconds left.

UMass Lowell got the ball back with seven seconds left, down by two, but that turned out to be all the time they needed. Senior standout Akeem Williams drove the lane and found recent returnee to the team Antonio Bivins, who made the layup and sent the game to overtime.

The River Hawks used their momentum to carry them in overtime, and with the win they created their first winning streak, having won their previous two games.

The aforementioned Bivins has been a catalyst in the River Hawks’ recent success, after coming back from an achilles injury that the team originally feared would keep him out the entire season. Luckily for Bivins and his teammates, his recovery was rapid, and he has become a key factor in increasing the team’s size and competitiveness.

With the majority of the student population returning to campus over the weekend, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams should enjoy large, raucous crowds at their home games for the remainder of the season, especially those played at the Tsongas Center.

The men’s next home game is Sunday the 26th.