Team Records: 
Eastern: 4-6 (1-0 LEC) 
UMB 6-4 (0-2 LEC)  
 
Series History:

• 88^th meeting all-time, dating back to 1983/84

• Eastern leads the all-time series, 76-11; the Warriors had a 12-game winning streak stopped vs. UMB here a year ago, 69-51, in the back end of the two-game regular-season series

• Eastern and UMB are two of the Original Six members of the LEC. The teams met three times in non-conference play before squaring off for the first time in the LEC in 1986/87.Eastern won the first 19 games in the series (the first 13 in LEC competition).

• Last meeting: 2024/25, -51-69 (at Eastern)  

• Last win: 2024/25, +64-53 (at UMB) 

• Last loss: 2024/25, -51-69 (at Eastern)

• Eastern is 8-2 in its last ten games against UMB at home, winning six in a row at Geissler Gym vs. the Beacons before last year's 18-point setback
• In last year's 64-53 win over UMB at the Clark Athletic Center, Eastern outscored the Beacons by 12 in the third quarter after trailing by four at halftime. The hosts shot just 31 percent from the floor and failed on 21 of 23 three-point field goals. Eastern scored 21 points off UMB's 20 turnovers. All-LEC forward Sabanna Berrios led the Beacons with 26 points and 13 rebounds in 40 minutes and UMB won every quarter.
• In last year's 69-51 loss at Geissler Gym, UMB shot 47 percent from the floor (attempting only six three-pointers) and committed only eight turnovers. Four of Eastern's first five buckets were three-pointers in that game but the Warriors were 1-for-11 from distance in the second half. A freshman in that game, Eastern's Liv Cassesse had 16 points and 11 rebounds
• Eastern has won back-to-back LEC tournament titles twice, the first time coming here as the No. 1 seed against UMB, 64-62 in overtime in 2015 and 64-56 the following season, also against UMB. Both times, the Beacons advanced through the first two rounds as the No. 3 seed and No. 6 seed, respectively. UMB bounced back in 2018 to claim its only tournament title as the No. 2 seed at top-seeded UMass Dartmouth, 65-56.
• In 88 meetings, no game has ever been decided by one point, with the OT game in 2015 serving as the closest margin yet
• A win Saturday would mark the fourth time in the series that the Beacons have won two straight against the Warriors; UMB swept the season series in 1993/94, 2006/07 and 2017/18.

Game Notes:  

• Eastern is ranked seventh in the LEC pre-season poll after coming off last year's 11-15 overall finish (10-6 LEC) and fourth-place mark in the LEC standings; UMass Boston is ranked in a tie for fifth in the LEC poll after last year's 10-16 record (7-9 LEC) and sixth-place finish. Both teams lost first-round LEC tournament games.

 

• A winner of three of its last four, Eastern plays only its third game this year at Geissler Gymnasium. Eastern has been idle since an eight-point win at Bridgewater State University three weeks ago

 

• UMass Boston is com­ing off a 93-34 rout of Fitchburg State University on New Year's Eve day... freshman Kaydee Sturm, who had scored 39 points in the team's first nine games, poured in 25 points in that win over Fitchburg, sinking seven three-point field goals; UMB is 3-1 on the road this year

 

• First-year Eastern player Maddie Topa, the state's No.-8 all-time female high school scorer, has been named NEWBA and LEC Rookie-of-the-Week in successive weeks this year

 

• All-LEC forward Marissa Nudd of Eastern has led or shared the team lead in scoring seven times and in rebounds seven times, while Cas­sesse has topped the team in assists or shared the team lead seven times

 

• In the win over Bridgewater on Dec. 12, Topa and junior Alysssa Paquette each had 12 rebounds, Cassesse 18 points and six assists and Topa 13 points (for her first double-double), five steals and four blocks

 

• Nudd, Cassesse and first-year player Katelyn Novak have started every game for Eastern.... UMB leads the LEC in steals, averaging 14.5 per game, and in FG pct. (45.9) but is last in three-point FG percentage defense (30.5); Eastern's three-point FG pct. of 23.1 ranks first

 

• Nudd's 17.2 scoring average ranks her third in the LEC and her 7.3 rebounds per game is sixth-best; Hialeah Turner-Foster (54.4), Ashleigh Lagor (50.0), Jordis Tautalatasi (48.8) and Berrios (46.9) of UMB rank among the top seven in the LEC in FG pct.; Sibyla Jensen (4.8) of UMB and Eastern's Cassesse (4.3) rank 1-2 in assists and UMB's Tatiannah Fevry shares second place in steals (2.7), with Lagor, Jensen and Tautalatasi all in the Top 10.

 

• Led by Berrios (12.6 ppg.), UMB features a balanced offense, with  Tautalatasi (10.3), Lagor (10.0) and Turner-Foster (9.2) following closely behind Berrios; Sturm is second in the LEC in three-point pct. (48.6)

 

• First-year Eastern head coach Mandy King of Eastern needs one win for 300 in her 23-year head coaching career

 
Upcoming:

The Warriors host UMass Dartmouth Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the second of 15 straight season-ending LEC games. Eastern leads the all-time series, 72-24, but has been swept in the two-game series in each of the last two seasons. The teams are 6-6 in the last 12 meetings.Ranked fourth in this year's LEC pre-season poll after losing three All-LEC performers, UMD won last year's LEC regular-season and tournament titles, the top-seeded Corsairs routing third-seeded Southern Maine, 94-50, in the title game to end Rhode Island College's four-year stranglehold on the championship. The title was the first for UMD, which had placed second in four of the previous seven years. The Corsairs (4-6, 1-1 LEC) host Bates College in a non-conference game Saturday before visiting Geissler Gym. UMD dropped a pair of games in the Babson College Tournament earlier this week, losing by an average of 25 points to UC Santa Cruz and the University of Hartford.