DURHAM, N.H. – Sophomore Brayden O’Connor (Ottawa, Ontario) scored a career-high 23 points to help lead the UMass Lowell men’s basketball team to a 82-75 victory against the New Hampshire Wildcats on Saturday afternoon in the conference opener.
“Great way to start conference play with a well-earned road win against a tough opponent,” said UML head coach Pat Duquette. “Lots of good contributions in a total team effort with some crucial execution and timely free throws down the stretch.”
One of four double-digit scorers for the River Hawks (10-4, 1-0 AE), O’Connor shot 58% (7-for-12) from the field, including hitting a personal-best three triples.
Senior Quinton Mincey (Upper Marlboro, Md.) also totaled a career-high with 19 points alongside a team-best 12 rebounds. Senior Max Brooks (Waldorf, Md.) added 17 points and eight rebounds, while junior Cam Morris III (Alexander City, Ala.) chipped in with 12 and nine boards, including eight on the offensive glass.
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Brooks got things started early for the River Hawks, scoring the team’s first 10 points to put his squad up four with 15:46 on the clock. Meanwhile, UMass Lowell began to lock down on defense, allowing only one jumper over five minutes of play. The Wildcats (8-6, 0-1 AE) countered with a strong defensive presence of their own, but a triple and two free throws by Mincey helped the visitors maintain a seven-point edge, 17-10, with 11 minutes remaining in the first.
New Hampshire began to find its rhythm on the offensive end as Jaxson Baker sank the team’s first three of the night, followed shortly after by another three from Clarence Daniels. Although O’Connor followed with a trey of his own, the hosts responded with a 12-2 run over six minutes of play to jump in front, 28-24, with 3:34 on the clock. The River Hawks, however, battled right back with a 7-2 burst, highlighted by four points from O’Connor, to hold a one-point advantage, 31-30, heading into the break.
The start of the second half began with a back-and-forth that was capped off by a three-pointer from Trey Woodyard to put the Wildcats up one. The River Hawks maintained their composure, however, as they put together a 12-2 run highlighted by an aggressive defense that forced four Wildcat turnovers over five possessions. Although New Hampshire found a quick 5-0 burst to chip the lead down to 48-44 with 14:46 on the clock, UMass Lowell fired right back with seven straight points, kick-started by a second-chance bucket from Morris III.
Women win first
LOWELL – A dominant performance from the UMass Lowell women’s basketball team led to its first win of the season with a 70-53 victory over the New Hampshire Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at the Costello Athletic Center.
Graduate student Mili Carrera (Lima, Peru) led the River Hawks (1-13, 1-1 AE) with 18 points, shooting 5-for-9 from behind the arc, and added a team-high seven assists with five rebounds and three steals.
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Freshman Maddie Rice (Charlottesville, Va.) added 14 points shooting 7-for-9 while redshirt-junior Sydney Watkins (Indianapolis, Ind.) grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and seven assists along with a team-high four steals. Freshman Rayne Durant (New Haven, Conn.) scored 12 points and had three rebounds.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A private school teacher who says she was fired after driving an 18-year-old student to get an abortion is suing New Hampshire’s Department of Education and officials she says falsely suggested she circumvented state law.
New Hampshire law requires parents to receive written notice at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on an unemancipated minor. But in this case, the student wasn’t living with her parents and was a legal adult, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
The teacher, who filed the suit as “Jane Doe,” said she provided the student with contact information for a community health center last fall when the student disclosed her suspected pregnancy and later gave her a ride to the appointment in October. The school fired her within days and referred the matter to the Department of Education, which revoked her teaching license earlier this month.
The lawsuit says the department exceeded its authority and violated her due process rights by revoking her credentials without a fair and impartial process. And it accuses Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut of pushing a false narrative of her conduct via an opinion piece he published in April.
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The essay, titled “Thank God Someone is Looking Out for the Children,” was published in response to New Hampshire Public Radio reports critical of the commissioner. In it, Edelblut asked rhetorically whether the department should “turn a blind eye” when “allegedly, an educator lies by calling in sick so they can take a student – without parental knowledge – to get an abortion.”
According to the lawsuit, department officials knew for months prior to the essay’s publication that the student in question was an adult and thus not subject to the parental notification law.
Kimberly Houghton, spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on its investigation of the teacher and referred questions about the lawsuit to the attorney general’s office. Michael Garrity, spokesperson for that agency, said Wednesday that officials are reviewing it and will respond in due course. Attorneys for the teacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The teacher’s firing was first reported last week by The Boston Globe, based on investigatory records it requested from the Education Department. The lawsuit said the department’s “biased and stilted disclosure” of information that should have remained confidential until the case was settled created a misleading narrative that damaged the teacher’s reputation and put her at risk.
A hearing is scheduled for July 3, five days before the teacher is set to begin a new job.
“She’s a beautiful old lady,” said Kevin Parker, 70. “We just wanted to help her.”
Parker, who also lives in Fitzwilliam, was one of the neighbors who joined the team to help repair the greenhouse. He said work got underway a few weeks ago, after he and another neighbor, Todd Reed, had assembled a team.
“It became like a barn raising thing for a couple of days,” Parker said. The repairs took about 15 hours, according to Parker, who has been spending summers in Fitzwilliam for as long as he can remember. Twenty-five years ago, he became a full-time resident.
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Todd Reed said the team of volunteers stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Parker, who is a retired general contractor turned vegetable farmer, said Bullock is beloved in town, and when it became clear that she needed help, people were willing to volunteer.
“She’s been struggling,” he said. “The thing got ripped a couple of years ago. Rolls of replacement have been there since the fall, but no one got the ball going to help her.”
That changed this spring, when her longtime neighbor Todd Reed, 60, led the repair effort.
When Reed moved to Fitzwilliam in 1986, Bullock and her husband were the first people he met. Her husband passed away in 2017, but Bullock has kept the farm stand going on her own.
“She’s just one of the nicest, sweetest ladies you ever want to meet,” said Reed, who was happy to work on the repairs after Bullock called him and asked for help. He has an auto body repair shop and raises honey bees.
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Reed said the team stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. They also installed ventilation and a double-layer of plastic that can be filled with air in the winter to provide extra warmth.
Some people were there for their knowledge, while others were just needed to hold the huge piece of plastic, according to Reed.
“You’ve got to realize unrolling a piece of plastic that size, if you get any wind at all, it makes a pretty big kite,” he said. “You need people just to hold down the corners. They don’t necessarily need to know what they’re doing, they just need to be a body holding a corner.”
Thanks to his recruitment, he said there plenty of bodies: around eight to 10 people were there to help, which was enough to avoid the kite scenario.
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Frances Bullock’s farm stand has been a roadside fixture in Fitzwilliam for at least the past 40 years. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Reed said the repair should last for about three to five years before it needs to get done again.
Bullock has already filled the greenhouse with annual flowers that she can sell this year.
“I’m really happy to have this,” Bullock said. She said the money from the farm stand helps her pay to heat her house in the winter.
Bullock said she started the farm stand about 40 years ago. “We grew more than we could eat and neighbors kept coming by looking for stuff,” she said.
Now, she said the ears of corn have become a favorite among her customers.
“Fitzwilliam is split politically but all the residents love the loons on Laurel Lake and Mrs. Bullock’s corn,” said Barbara Schecter, a longtime summer resident of Fitzwilliam.
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Residents said in the town of about 2,400, it’s typical for neighbors look out for each other.
“I’ve been helped through times, too,” Parker said. “It is a place where money’s not the first issue.”
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
