Box Score MIAMI – Junior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) reached 1,000 career points early in the game, then scored 17 of his career-tying 27 points in the second half to power the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team to an 87-80 non-conference victory over Messiah College Wednesday afternoon at Alumni Gymnasium on the campus of the Florida Christian School.
(Graphics courtesy of Nick Aconfora)
Preston, a 5-foot-9 inch lefty, became the 30th player in program history to reach 1,000 points when he sank the second of two free throws 5:25 into the contest. In the second half, he combined with junior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) for 31 points as No. 19 Eastern (9-2) raced to an 18-point lead midway through the stanza and survived ineffective free throw shooting the rest of the way.
The point total was the highest allowed this year by Messiah (7-4), which had won its third straight game Tuesday, 85-82, over UMass Dartmouth of the Little East Conference. Eastern ended a streak of five straight losses in Florida over three years – including a 72-71 overtime setback to Messiah in the same gym two years ago -- those setbacks coming by a total of ten points.
Preston and Leumene combined to sink nine of 14 field goals in the second half to spark the Warriors to a field goal mark just under 58 percent in a 52-point half. With Eastern leading by ten points six minutes into the half, Leumene swished a short jumper, then a three-pointer from the corner on an assist from freshman guard Tarchee Brown (Rockville), and Preston followed with the team's next ten points – the first six of those points coming on a pair of three-pointers a minute apart which gave the Warriors their largest lead, 60-42, with 11 minutes left.
Leading by 16 with nine minutes left, Eastern clanged six consecutive free throw attempts which helped the Falcons move to within seven, 70-63, with four minutes remaining. With 3:36 left, Preston ended the dry spell when he connected on the first of two free throws. He missed the second, but sophomore center Brandon Kuczenski (Naugatruck) grabbed his only offensive rebound of the second half and put it back to re-store Eastern's double-digit lead, 73-63.
Trailing by 11 in the final seconds, Messiah countered with two three-point field goals in six seconds – the second one set up by a steal off a fullcourt press – to pull to within five points with 5.6 seconds left. With Eastern inbounding under its own basket following a timeout, junior guard Michael-Thomas Sciro (Westerly, RI) threw a touchdown pass to a streaking Preston, who converted the uncontested layup as time expired.
Leumene followed Preston with 18 points along with seven rebounds, sophomore forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) adding 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals, and Brown completing his first career double-double with 11 points (9-of-12 from the foul line) and a career-high 12 rebounds. Kuczenski was pressed into duty when senior forward Brandon Yarborough (Stamford) was helped from the floor with a left ankle injury with 2:54 left in the first half. In the game, Kuczenski scored eight points in a season-high 34 minutes, tied his career-high with nine rebounds and handed out a career-high five assists.
Preston, who reached 1,000 points with his fifth point of the game, finished the contest with 1,022 career points to move into a tie for 28th all-time. The game was the 70th in the career of Preston. Nick Nedwick, Eastern's all-time leading scorer with 1,657 points, netted his 1,000th point in his 77th career game. Nedwick averaged 14.4 points in a 115-game career. Preston is averaging 14.6 points.
Eastern returns to Little East Conference action Saturday when it hosts Plymouth State University at 3 p.m.
