WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team survived serious second-half foul trouble to its top three inside players to defeat the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 74-68, Wednesday night in a Little East Conference game at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Despite top inside players Kelsey Santagata (Stamford), Lexis Foster (Groton) and Mya Villard (Cromwell) limited to a total of only 54 minutes, Eastern (8-5, 3-1 LEC) withstood UMass Dartmouth's (11-3, 2-2 LEC) 31 offensive rebounds  by outscoring the Corsairs by ten off turnovers.

The game featured last year's LEC regular-season and tournament champion Eastern against this year's LEC pre-season favorite, UMass Dartmouth.Eastern and UMass Dartmouth entered play among five teams in a tie for the top spot in the conference standings. Eastern and Keene State College now share first place, with UMass Dartmouth, Weestern Connecticut UMass Boston and Rhode Island College all sharing third place.

Foster, ranked eighth nationally in blocked shots, was whistled for her fourth foul with 6:23 left in the third quarter after Santagata and Villard were called for their third each minutes earlier. Villard picked up her fourth foul less than two minutes into the fourth quarter and Santagata was assessed her fourth with four minutes left.

The Warriors never trailed after Santagata (7 points) and Foster (5 rebounds) staked them to a seven-point lead after one quarter, and Eastern moved out to a 13-point advantage midway through the second quarter before the Corsairs made a second-half run. The visitors whittled the Eastern lead to one, 69-68, with 2:38 left but did not score the rest of the way. Santagata, who had attempted only one three-point field goal this year, swished a corner three at that point to make it 72-68 and the visitors came up empty on their final nine shots from the floor and on two free throws.

Foster blocked two shots in the final 65 seconds before fouling out with 11.7 seconds left and Santagata sank two free throws with 10.6 seconds left to ice the win.

Santagata led four double-digit scorers with a season-high 19 points, senior guard Jordyn Nappi (Southington) adding 14 points and four assists, junior guard Kelly Reardon (Holyoke, MA)  ten points and six assists and senior guard Julia DePoi (Brookfield) ten points and four steals.

UMass sophomore forward Nakira Examond, the LEC leader in scoring and field goal percentage and second-best rebounder, led UMass with 24 points and 22 rebounds (16 offensive), senior forward Rachel McCarron adding 16 points (7-of-12 from the floor) and junior forward Alicia Kutil 13 points and eight rebounds.

The loss ends UMass Dartmouth's four-game winning streak and improves the Warriors' home record to 5-1.

Eastern visits the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday at 1 p.m. in a conference game.