WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Junior guard Tarchee Brown (Rockville) had 12 points in the second half and senior forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) seven rebounds in the second half as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team broke from a four-point halftime lead by outscoring the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 40-17 over the final 20 minutes for a 78-51 Little East Conference victory Wednesday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

In a rematch of last year's LEC semifinals won here by UMass Dartmouth, Eastern (10-5, 4-0 LEC)  got 27 points from Brown and 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists from Lindo to win the battle of the only conference unbeatens. Three-time defending LEC champion Eastern has won six straight and nine of ten since a 1-4 start. UMass (9-5, 3-1 LEC) had won four of its previous five but fell to 1-15 against the Warriors since 2009-10.

There were five ties and eight lead changes in the first half but junior guard Collin Jordan (Cheshire) gave Eastern a lift at the break when he swished a half-court shot in front of the Eastern bench as the first-half buzzer sounded to give the Warriors a four-point, 38-34 halftime lead.

The Warriors never trailed in the second half, shooting 51.9 percent from the floor and limiting the Corsairs to 24.1 percent. Holding a steady lead throughout the second half, Eastern pulled away by limiting the Corsairs to two points over the final ten minutes, outscoring UMD 21-2.

After scoring six points in the first half,  freshman point guard Carlos Gonzalez (Springfield, MA) outscored UMass 8-3 over 90 seconds when he sandwiched a pair of three-pointers around a two-point field goal to help Eastern push its lead to nine, 50-41, four minutes into the half. Gonzalez, a three-time LEC Rookie-of-the-Week, finished with 14 points and sophomore guard Tyrell Arnum (Bloomfield) added six rebounds and four assists.

Eastern held a +11 advantage in points at the foul line, with Lindo going 5-of-6 and Brown 4-of-6, the Warriors converting 16 of 22 attempts.

Senior guard Jon Robinson led UMD with 12 points, senior guard Chris Mendes  adding ten points and junior forward Joshua Imadiyi nine rebounds.

Eastern visits the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday at 3 p.m. in a conference game.