WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Junior forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) fueled a second-half surge by scoring 20 of his career-high 30 points and grabbing half of his game-high 16 rebounds in the second half as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team  clinched a share of its third straight Little East Conference regular-season title with an 88-71 win over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday afternoon at Geissler Gymnasium.

A winner of all eight of its home games this year and 14 straight against UMass Dartmouth (13-10, 6-6 LEC), Eastern (16-7, 10-2 LEC) shot 56.7 percent from the floor in outscoring the Corsairs, 54-33 in the second half, to erase a four-point halftime deficit.

Eastern, seventh in the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional rankings, holds a two-game lead over the University of Southern Maine with two regular-season conference games remaining, needing one victory to clinch the No. 1 tournament seed.  UMass Dartmouth shares fourth place in the conference with Keene State College and Plymouth State University. The top four seeds host the bottom four seeds in the first round of the LEC tournament Feb. 23.

In the game, Lindo was 12-of-16 from the floor – which included three dunks – as Eastern shot 53.2 percent from the floor and canned 18 of 21 free throws. Eastern commited only five second-half turnovers in scoring 16 points more than its season scoring average. The Corsairs were held 13 points under their season average.

On Seniors' Day, senior Matthew Sterner (Plymouth) got the Warriors off to a quick start by sinking the first two buckets of the game and senior guard Michael-Thomas Sciro (Westerly, RI) followed with a jumper to make it 6-2 after four minutes. In 16 minutes each, Sterner finished with four points and three rebounds and Sciro nine points and two rebounds. The pair combined to connect on six of nine shots from the floor.  Senior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) added six points and four rebounds.

National scoring leader Jordan Rezendes of UMass Dartmouth, a 6-foot-2 inch guard, finished just one point shy of his season average by scoring 29 points on 8-of-20 field goal shooting and 9-of-11 free throw shooting.

Senior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half and sophomore guard Tarchee Brown (Rockville) added 14 points and five assists for the Warriors. Junior center Brandon Kuczenski (Naugatuck) came off the bench for six points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals without a turnover in 22 minutes.

Junior guard Jon Robinson followed Rezendes with ten points for UMass, which had won its previous two conference games.

Eastern plays its final two regular-season conference games Wednesday at Keene State College at 7:30 p.m. at next Saturday at UMass Boston at 3 p.m.