ORLANDO – Senior guard Brian Salzillo (North Haven) tied the game with three free throws with four seconds left in regulation, but the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team never led in overtime in a 70-69 loss to North Central College Friday afternoon at the Downtown Recreation Complex.

At right: Mike Garrow shoots over North Central's Kevin Honn in the second half of Friday's 70-69 overtime loss in Orlando.

The loss ends a six-game winning streak for No. 22-ranked Eastern (7-2) and is the fifth win in a row for North Central (7-2), which reached last year's NCAA Division III Final Four. The Warriors were coming off a two-week layoff.

After Salzillo canned three free throws after being fouled on a potential game-tying three-point field goal in the final seconds of regulation, the Warriors never led in overtime. Salzillo tied the game at 69-all with a driving layup with 1:38 left in overtime. An offensive foul on North Central's  Landon Gamble returned the ball to Eastern with just under a minute left, but the Warriors missed two free throws with the score still tied at 69-all with 29 seconds left.

Vince Kmiec rebounded the second miss. After a  timeout, North Central broke Eastern's pressure and got the ball into the front court, where Tyler Sutton was fouled in front of the Cardinals' bench with two seconds left. After sinking the first one, Sutton intentionally missed the second. The Warriors rebounded but the ball deflected out of bounds as the horn sounded.  

Senior forward Mike Garrow (Terryville) of Eastern led all players with 25 points and topped Eastern with seven rebounds before fouling out with 72 seconds into overtime in a tie game. Kmiec broke the tie with two free throws after Eastern was called for a technical foul on the play. Gamble then hit the back end of a two-short foul to make it 65-62 with 3:36 left. Salzillo tied the score, 67-67, with his third three-point field goal from the left side with 2:42 left and a minute later, tied the score for the final time, 69-69,  with his drive to the hoop with 1:38 left.

Salzillo's first three-point field goal in the opening minutes of the second half extended his personal streak to 44 consecutive games and cut a five-point deficit to two before the Cards scored six in a row – two on inside buckets from the 6-foot-6 inch Gamble --  to move out to the biggest lead (8 points) by either team , 39-31, five minutes into the half.

The Warriors kept pace the rest of the way but could even the score until Salzillo's three free throws with four seconds left. The second and third free throws came after North Central called time outs, with the second one hitting the front of the rim, then the back, before falling through.

Salzillo  followed Garrow with 20 points – 18 after the break – with sophomore guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) chipping in 14 points, five assists and three steals. Garrow improved his team-leading free throw percentage to 88.9 (46-of-54) by converting 11 of 12.

Kmiec led the Cardinals with 24 points (4-of-8 from "three", but was limited to five after the break on 1-of-6 shooting from the floor. He was 6-of-6 from the stripe to go along with five steals and four assists and commited only one turnover in 45 minutes.

Eastern faces Carthage College Saturday at 2 p.m. at Orlando.