DANBURY, Conn. --  The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team held Western Connecticut State University scoreless from the floor and to just one point in a late three-minute stretch and went on to post an 81-66 Little East Conference victory Wednesday night at Feldman Arena.

The two-time defending LEC regular-season champion, Eastern (15-7, 9-2 LEC) maintains a two-game lead in the conference with three regular-season games remaining after its tenth straight win over the Colonials. Western (13-9, 6-5 LEC) entered the game in a three-way tie for second place, but fell three games off the pace , as did Keene State College, which was upset by Plymouth State Universitty, 78-76, in overtime Wednesday. University of Southern Maine remained two games back with a 74-53 win over UMass Boston.

With Eastern leading by 11 with nine minutes left, the Warriors and Western traded buckets before Eastern held the Colonials scoreless from the floor for just over three minutes to move out to a 14-point, 74-60 lead with 2:37 left.

The Warriors scored eight of their final 13 points over the last five minutes from the foul line, the team's two buckets coming by junior forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) grabbed a defensive rebound and scored on the other end with 2:49 left, and a three-point field goal by sophomore guard Tarchee Brown (Rockville) with 1:07 left.

At 54.7 percent, Eastern shot over 50 percent for the second straight game and sank 17 of 25 free throws.

Brown topped all players with 24 points, Lindo adding 16 as the duo combined to sink 14 of 22 field goals and 10 of 15 free throws. Senior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) added 17 points and senior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) 15. Lindo had nine rebounds, Leumene, Brown and junior center Brandon Kuczenski (Naugatuck) five each.

Western  senior forward Luis Bridtter, who had team-highs of 18 points and 14 rebounds in the Colonials' 71-63 loss at Eastern Jan. 20, was saddled with four personal fouls and managed only two points and two rebounds in 23 minutes.  Freshman forward Jauch Green and senior guard Phil Starks combined for 43 of Western's point total. Green had 22 points (10-of-16 from the floor) and a game-high ten rebounds and Starks 21 points and five assists.

Eastern hosts Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday at 3 p.m.