Box Score PROVIDENCE, R.I. – In a battle of the most successful Little East Conference men's basketball teams in the last half-dozen years, Eastern Connecticut State University captured its 20th consecutive conference regular-season contest with a 53-47 victory over Rhode Island College in the conference opener for both schools Saturday afternoon at The Murray Center.
The first team to win all 14 LEC regular-season games in conference history a year ago, No. 25-ranked Eastern (8-1) got 26 points from junior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) to record its fifth straight victory and hand last year's LEC playoff champion Rhode Island (6-2) its first loss in its last six games.
Eastern and Rhode Island have combined to win the last six LEC regular-season titles and have met in the conference playoff title game three of the last four years. RIC edged Eastern by one point in the pre-season coaches' poll, both clubs garnering four first-place votes.
Preston upped his team-leading scoring average to 19.7 points per game by sinking 11 of 18 field goals and moving to within 28 points of 1,000 in his three-year career. Former high school teammate Hugh Lindo (Enfield), a sophomore, added ten points and ten rebounds – his sixth game of double-digit rebounds this year. Among the national leaders in blocked shots, Lindo added six more to give him 22 on the season (2.4 per game).
In a game matching the top two defensive teams in the conference, Eastern shot a season-low 39.6 percent and missed half of its 16 free throws but limited the hosts to 31.1 percent from the floor, including 20.0 percent (3-for-15) from three-point range.
Eastern gave up only 19 first-half points and led by ten at the break, getting 15 points from Preston over the first 20 minutes.
Rhode Island senior forward Chris Burton contributed a pair of steals and dunks to spark the Anchormen in the early minutes of the second half and the hosts moved into its first lead with seven minutes left on a three-point field goal from freshman guard Roosevelt Shider.
The Warriors regained the momentum and pushed their lead to nine, 52-43, with 1:20 left on a drive by Preston with 1:20 remaining increased their lead back to nine, 52-43, and RIC got no closer than the final six-point differential.
The team's second-leading rebounder, junior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) matched Lindo with ten rebounds, helping Eastern haul down 18 offensive boards and owning a +11 advantage on the glass.
Lindo and Preston combined to sink 16-of-24 field goals, helping to negate a 3-for-26 effort from two other starters.
Preston is averaging 14.3 points in his 68-game career and is just off the pace of program scoring leader Nick Nedwick (14.4 ppg.). Nedwick reached 1,000 career points in his 77th career game and went on to post a record 1,657 in his 115-game career which concluded in 2012.
Eastern competes against Marietta College and Messiah College Dec. 30-31 in Miami.
