KEENE, N.H. – The Little East Conference's No.1-ranked defensive team held the conference's No. 1 offensive team more than 20 points below its season average as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team clinched the top seed in the conference tournament for the second straight year with a 63-50 victory over Keene State College  Wednesday evening at Spaulding Gymnasium.

With the win, Eastern (18-6, 10-3 LEC) breaks a two-way tie atop the standings with Keene (20-4, 9-4 LEC) and clinches the No. 1 tournament seed and no worse than a share of the LEC regular-season title. A win at UMass Boston in Saturday's season-finale give the Warriors their first outright LEC regular-season title in seven years (Eastern shared the title last year with UMass Dartmouth last year).

Ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Division III Northeast Region rankings, released today, Eastern completed the regular-season series sweep of No. 25 nationally-ranked Keene, which lost for the first time in 13 home games this season.

A winner of 11 of its last 13 games, Eastern converted its first 14 free throws of the game (24-of-29 in the game) and helped Keene miss its first  13 three-point tries (4-of-20 in the game) in routing the Owls in a game which was not nearly as close as the final score indicated.  The Warriors led 14-2 after seven minutes and by 23, 45-22, after three quarters before the hosts countered with 28 of its final point total in the fourth quarter.

Following its last two losses -- to a struggling Rhode Island College team Jan. 30 and to UMass Dartmouth last Saturday due to a late-game collapse -- Eastern has rebounded to defeat a nationally-ranked team on the road. Following the RIC loss, the Warriors downed Conn College, 59-51 three days later. 

Eastern leads the LEC in scoring defense (53.7) and field goal and three-point percentage defense while Keene is the conference leader in scoring (71.3) and three-pointers (6.7 per game) and three-point percentage (32.0).

Keene was 0-for-12 from three-point range and was 22.5 percent from the floor after three quarters, with LEC three-point leader and team scoring leader Sandi Purcell missing her first 13 shots (0-of-8 from long range) and finishing 1-of-14 from the floor (1-of-9 from long range).

Eastern senior forward Jill Ritrosky (Pittsfield, MA) scored Eastern's first five points and had seven of her 11 points in the first quarter. The Warriors led by 26 points with two minutes left in the game before Keene outscored Eastern's reserves 17-4 the rest of the way.

Junior guard Jordyn Nappi (Southington) led Eastern with 20 points (4-of-6 from three-point range) for Eastern, with Ritrosky and senior forward Erin Brooks (Billerica, MA) each grabbing ten rebounds. From the foul line, Nappi was 6-of-6 and senior guard Victoria Pfohl (Trumbull) 5-of-6.

Keene junior forward Stephanie D'Annolfo led all players with 21 points but no teammate had more than seven.