The expression on Rivier's Alexa Dufries' face plus the official's signal of a 3-pointer tells the story as she scored her 1,000th career point in the first half of the Raiders' 64-49 win Tuesday night over Framingham State at the Muldoon Center. (Courtesy photo by Nick Perenick/Rivier Athletics)

NASHUA – Alexa Dufries was in the zone she loves: The Muldoon Zone.

The Raiders senior had a night to remember, scoring 19 points and eclipsing the 1,000th career point scoring mark in Rivier’s 64-49 win Tuesday night over Framingham State at the Muldoon Center.

“I love playing in front of the home crowd, in the ‘Doon, my family’s here, it’s an exciting time,” Dufries said. “It’s been a goal of mine, so glad to hit it here in the ‘Doon with all my teammates and all my people.”

It was a night of celebration for the Raiders. Before the game grad senior Lyric Grumblatt was honored for hitting her 2,000th career point on the road a week ago. The only thing that could put a damper on everything would have been a loss, and the Raiders saw a 34-15 first half lead shrink to 46-42 with just over nine minutes to play in the game. But the Raiders held the Rams to just seven points the rest of the way and Grumblatt hit two big 3-pointers along with one by Hudson’s Alyssa Scharn to pull away.

That made things way better for Dufries, a senior from Leicester, Mass.

“She’s just such a good kid,” Raiders coach Deanna Purcell said. “And when someone like her who works hard every day — she always in the gym, no one takes more shots than she does – a teammate, a friend, to reach that milestone … She was 48 away at the beginning of the year, was in a little bit of a slump but to have her come out of that is amazing. Incredible.”

Dufries was held to three points in the second half, as the Rams clamped down defensively but also the Raiders, as Purcell said, “We also got cold. We shot almost 50 percent from three in the first half, that’s a tough streak to continue. But they also did really well offensively, they got to the rim a little bit more, we kind of lacked a little bit defensively.

“But it’s a good learning experience because we figured out how to win after kind of getting a punch thrown at us and fighting back.”

Nashua’s Hannah Muchemore added 10 for the Raiders, while FSU was led by 10 each by Abigail Martin and Michelle Moreno. Riv may have only gone 9 for 23 from 3-point range, but Scharn’s trey from the right corner with 2:22 left gave the Raider a 57-47 lead to help seal the deal.

“Alyssa, for a sophomore to come in in the clutch like that, she did that for us last year,” Purcell said. “Especially on that drive and kick. She’s really good at hitting that shot. She’s been a little cold this year so for her to hit that in a big moment, I’m happy for her. She needed that.”

The Raiders recovered from the first half adrenalin wearing off.

“We were able to limit their run and stop the bleeding,” Purcell said. “Understand that when teams go on runs, this season so far we’ve let them get away from us. Tonight we didn’t do that.”

“We have a lot of inexperience players,” Rams coach Walter Paschal, his team now 4-3, said. “They play hard. I think Riv is good, they play a tough schedule. They came out like gangbusters. For us to come to within four, six, whatever it was, just didn’t win.”

The Raiders improved to 2-5, but that record is the result of a difficult first semester, non-conference schedule to get them ready for Great Northeast Athletic Conference play in January.

“It sure is,” Purcell said. “I want to make sure when we get to our conference play, we’re ready. … that we’ve already playing at this high level. We’ll play a tough schedule, suffer a few tough losses that we know we should win, but get better.”

Rivier’s Alyssa Scharn, left, and Framingham State’s Abigail Martin try to grab the loose ball during Tuesday night’s game at the Muldoon Center. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But the night belonged to Dufries, who said that eclipsing the four-figure mark has been on her mind since the season began.

“It was definitely there, but I just wanted to play my game, shoot freely, and just play with my team,” she said. “The whole goal is to win the GNAC championship, I just want to get there.”

But for now, a win on her big night was huge.

“The win makes it 10 times better,” Dufries said. “I love my teammates and there’s no place I’d rather be but here.”