three.js: vertices need update not working - r72

With r71 I could update vertices of my BoxGeometry for as below:

  var vertices = [];
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(0.5, 0.5, 0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(0.5, 0.5, -0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(0.5, -0.5, 0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(0.5, -0.5, -0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(-0.5, 0.5, -0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(-0.5, 0.5, 0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(-0.5, -0.5, -0.5));
  vertices.push(new THREE.Vector3(-0.5, -0.5, 0.5));

  this._mesh.geometry.vertices = vertices;
  this._mesh.geometry.applyMatrix(
      new THREE.Matrix4().makeTranslation(
        dataCoordinates.x,
        dataCoordinates.y,
        dataCoordinates.z));
  this._mesh.geometry.verticesNeedUpdate = true;

It doesn’t work anymore on r72.

It doesn’t raise any error.

Is it supposed to work? If not, which is the current best practice to update vertices of a geometry?