WILLIMANTIC,Conn. – Fourth-seeded Keene State College avenged two regular-season losses and eliminated No.  1 Eastern Connecticut State University, 81-63, in the semifinal round of the 2015 Little East Conference men's basketball tournament Friday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Keene (19-8) moves into Saturday's 2 p.m. final against second-seeded Rhode Island College (20-7), which broke from a halftime tie to topple third-seeded UMass Dartmouth (14-13), 75-63, in Friday's second semifinal.

The winner of the title game advances automatically to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Freshman guard Dizel Wright of Keene, who had only 10 total points against Eastern in two regular-season games, scored 17 and senior guard Tom Doyle – the LEC's second-leading scorer -- dropped in 30 points. He was 12-for-14 from the foul line in helping the Owls to a 21-for-26 mark from the stripe. Sophomore forward Jeff Lunn came off the bench for 14 points for Keene, which had advanced to the semis with a 101-99 win over Western Connecticut.

The Owls came out pressing and forced 16 Eastern turnovers in the game, with Keene capitalizing on those miscues for 16 points. Eastern failed on half of its 18 free throws.

Keene, which lost four of its final six regular-season games, led by ten at halftime and by as many as 20 five minutes into the second half. Eastern whittled the deficit to four with nine minutes left before the Owls answered with 15 of the next 16 points. Doyle canned a jumper and a three-pointer to push the Owls' four-point lead by to nine with 6:39 left, and Lunn scored inside to restore a double-digit lead (68-57) with just under five minutes left.  Eastern went more than seven minutes between baskets during Keene's decisive surge.

Poor free throw shooting prevented Eastern from overtaking the Owls in the second half. The Warriors missed six of 14 after the break and were just 9-of-18 from the stripe in the game.

Keene turned the ball over only eight times which led to only six Eastern points and canned 21 of 26 free throws.

Freshmen Collin Jordan (Cheshire) and Tarchee Brown (Rockville) were Eastern's only double-figure scores. Jordan netted a carer-high 18 points and Brown 16, the pair combining for 23 points in the second half.  Each also had seven rebounds. Sophomore Hugh Lindo (Enfield) was bottled up by the Keene defense throughout most of the night. He finished with seven points and a game-high ten rebounds.

#2 Rhode Island College 75, #3 UMass Dartmouth 63

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  Senior forward Chris Burton (New Rochelle, NY) scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half as second-seeded Rhode Island College snapped a halftime tie and rolled up a 75-63 victory over third-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the semifinals of the 2015 Little East Conference men's basketball tournament Friday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Rhode Island (20-7) moved into the tournament final for the ninth straight year and will face fourth-seeded Keene State College (19-8) in Saturday's 2 p.m. title tilt. Keene raced to a 17-4 lead on the way to an 81-63 rout of top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University in Friday's first game. For Keene, the victory avenged two regular-season losses to the Warriors which included a 95-71 setback at Keene, NH five weeks ago.

Keene is 1-6 in title games, capturing its only title in 2004 over Plymouth State University. Rhode Island defeated Keene in the title game in 2007 en route to its first championship, as well as in 2013. RIC is 6-2 in championship games, having won six of the last eight titles. The Anchormen defeated No. 1 Eastern Connecticut last year at Geissler Gymnasium.

Rhode Island commited nine turnovers in the first half against UMass Dartmouth, which outscored the Anchormen 8-2 over the final minutes of the first half to pull even at the break, 23-23. RIC scored 13 straight points early in the second half to break from a tie and move out to a 13-point, 40-27 lead five minutes into the second half.

Rhode Island senior guard Eric Alleyne (Watertown, MA) scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, sparking the 13-point run by sinking consecutive three-point field goals and later capping the burst with a free throw. Freshman guard Roosevelt Shider (Meriden, CT) followed by totaling 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

Burton, Alleyne and Shhider combined for 45 of their team's 52 second-half points when the Anchormen shot 50 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes after managing just 32.3 percent in the first half. Burton, the MVP of last year's tournament, added a game-high 12 rebounds and Alleyne contributed five assists.

Rated only fifth in the LEC in free throw shooting (.667), RIC converted 21 of 28 attempts against UMass Dartmouth, with Burton connecting on ten of 12.

Junior guard Jordan Rezendes (Onset, MA), the LEC scoring leader (23.3 ppg.), led UMass Dartmouth with 20 points and five rebounds, senior guard Jake Laga (Northampton, MA) adding 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Rezendes was just 2-for-9 from the floor in the first half, however, and totaled only five points.