Box Score BOSTON -- Senior guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) scored seven straight Eastern Connecticut State University points inside the final 1:30 – converting the team's only three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to initiate that run – as the Warriors sealed their third straight outright Little East Conference regular-season championship with a 69-64 victory over the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center.
Top-seeded Eastern (17-8, 11-3 LEC) and eighth-seeded UMass Boston (6-18, 2-12 LEC) will meet again Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in a first-round LEC tournament game. If it wins that game, Eastern will host the LEC Final Four beginning Saturday evening in one semifinal tournament game.
The Warriors defeated the Beacons at the Clark Center for the ninth straight time (15th consecutive time overall), but as traditionally has been the case since 2006, struggled to win. Eastern trailed by six eight minutes into the second half, but sparked by freshman guard Tyrell Arnum (Bloomfield), went on a decisive 13-2 run to move out to a five-point, 50-45 lead with eight minutes left.
With Eastern clinging to a one-point lead with two minutes left, Preston unloaded the team's only three-point field goal of the game with the shot clock expiring, then connected on four free throws in a span of 21 seconds to restore a five-point lead with 15 seconds left. The three-pointer was the 199th in the career of Preston, who ranks third all-time at Eastern in both three-point field goals and free throw percentage (83.3).
In the 13-2 spurt which carried the Warriors from six points back into a five-point lead, Arnum hit a jumper, then blocked a shot and scored on a drive on the other end on a pass from junior forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) to cut the UMB lead to two, 43-41. Following a UMB timeout, senior guard Kevin Leumene (Stamford) grabbed a rebound and later tied the game on another pass from Lindo. Preston's left-hander on a drive across the lane and subsequent free throw gave Eastern the lead for good, 48-45, with 9:28 left, and Arnum's free throws a minute later made it a five-point lead with eight minutes left.
Preston led both teams with 26 points (8-of-13 from the floor), Lindo adding 15 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks in 40 minutes. Arnum matched his career-high 11 points off the bench and also had four rebounds and three blocks. Before fouling out in the final minute, Leumene had eight points (4-of-5 from the floor) and five rebounds.
Preston was 9-of-10 from the foul line, Lindo 7-of-11, and Arnum 5-of-6. The trio combined on 17-of-20 shooting from the stripe in the second half.
Senior guard Michael Campbell, who was not present in Eastern's 18-point win over the Beacons a month ago in Willimantic, shared team-high scoring honors with 19 points and team-high rebounding honors with six. Senior guard Quadry Allen matched Campbell with 19 points and junior forward Kevin Louis-Jean came off the bench for ten points.
Eastern and UMass Boston will square off in an LEC first-round game in Willimantic for the second time in three years, the Warriors advancing in 2014 with a 61-55 verdict.
