Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team extended streaks for regular-season Little East Conference victories and regular-season home wins with a 66-41 victory over Plymouth State University Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
At right: Plymouth's Michael Elliott-Baltimore has very few options as Michael-Thomas Sciro (1) and Brandon Kuczenski (42) of Eastern close in in Saturday's Little East Conference game. (Photo by Liam Murphy)
Ranked No. 19 nationally, Eastern (10-2, 2-0 LEC) recorded its 21st straight regular-season conference victory by winnings its 13th straight regular-season home game. Plymouth (3-7, 0-2 LEC) dropped its fourth straight game this year after splitting its first six and fell for the tenth straight time to Eastern.
After the Panthers took their only lead of the game, the Warriors answered with the next eight points to take the lead for good, 13-6, seven minutes into action. Eastern pushed the lead to double figures and moved out to a 14-point, 25-11 lead with seven minutes left in the first half.
Plymouth shot just 26.3 percent from the floor in the first half and Eastern capitalized on 12 first-half Plymouth turnovers by scoring nearly half of its 38 first-half points on those miscues. The point total was the lowest for Plymouth this year and represented the least number of points by an Eastern opponent this season.
Sophomore forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) and junior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) each had 15 points for Eastern, which commited a season-low seven turnovers which led to only two Plymouth points. The Warriors totaled 23 points off Plymouth's 21 turnovers.
Junior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) followed with 12 points and junior guard Michael-Thomas Sciro (Westerly, RI) contributed a career-high 11 points for Eastern. Making his first start of the year due to an injury to senior forward Brandon Yarborough (Stamford), sophomore forward Brandon Kuczenski (Naugatuck) combined with Lindo and Leumene for 19 rebounds. Lindo had seven and Kuczenski and Leumene six each.
No Plymouth players managed double figures. Junior forward Uche Nwojeji came off the bench for eight points, while senior forward Michael Elliott-Baltimore had seven points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Alex Burt and sophomore guard Curtis Arsenault – the team's double-figure scorers on the season – combined for 14 points. Arsenault played only the second half, scoring seven. Burt added four assists and six rebounds.
Eastern hosts No. 15 Amherst College Tuesday at 7 p.m.
