Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Senior forward Hugh Lindo (Enfield) had 21 points -- including the 1,000th of his career -- and 14 rebounds and the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team outscored No. 3 nationally-ranked Amherst College 24-0 off turnovers in an 87-75 non-conference victory Tuesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
A winner of seven of eight after a 1-4 start, Eastern (8-5) defeated Amherst (9-2) for the first time after four losses in the series, the last two coming by a total of 11 points. Amherst has lost two of three after opening with eight straight victories.
Eastern's four turnovers did not lead to any Amherst points while the Warriors forced 17 Amherst turnovers with 11 steals, scoring 24 points off those miscues.
Lindo's 11th and 12th point of the game coming with 1:55 gone in the second half allowed him to reach, then exceed, the 1,000th-point milestone. A 51.0 percent free throw shooter this year, Lindo sank ten of 13 freebies – all in the second half. Limited to 15 first-half minutes after picking up his second personal foul, Lindo had 12 points and ten rebounds in the second half. Lindo also contributed five assists in 35 minutes.
Freshman point guard Carlos Gonzalez (Springfield, MA) scored a career and team-high 22 points on 7-of-11 field goals and turned the ball over only once in 31 minutes. Junior guard Tarchee Brown (Rockville), who reached 1,000 career points last month, added 17 points on 7-of-11 field goals. Sophomore guard Tyrell Arnum (Bloomfield) chipped in 17 points and six rebounds.
Six-foot-11 inch senior David Canny (Torrington) provided a handful of needed buckets, dropping in all four of his attempts for eight points. He also had four rebounds before fouling out with 2:36 left and Eastern in command of a 15-point lead.
Shooting 63.8 percent from the free throw line this year, Eastern was 22-of-29 (75.9 percent), including 17 of 22 in the second half. While trying to maintain a double-digit lead in the final five minutes, the Warriors converted 11 straight free throws in a stretch of four minutes. After Amherst cut a 17-point deficit to 11 with just under five minutes left, Lindo sparked the succession of made free throws with a pair. He later added two more, and Gonzalez virtually iced the win when he swished four in a row , three coming in succession after he was fouled on a three-point field goal attempt.
Lindo, Gonzalez and Brown all logged more than 30 minutes and were charged with a combined total of only two turnovers.
Season scoring leader Jayde Dawson of Amherst led all scorers with 26 points despite needing the first 11 minutes of the game to break into the scoring column. Dawson left the game with his fifth personal foul and his team trailing by 14 with 1:53 left. Dawson struck for 17 points in 14 second-half minutes, but missed four of nine free throws. Jade Conklin came off the bench for 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting and a team-high ten rebounds and Johnny McCarthy – the team's second-leading scorer, totaled 12 points and six rebounds.
Although Amherst shot marginally better from the floor and the teams had a comparable number of free throw attempts, the disparity in turnovers provided the Warriors with 15 more attempts from the floor, resulting in five additional buckets.
In mid-December, Lindo became the program's all-time leading rebounder, bringing a career total of 1,062 into play Tuesday.
Eastern returns to Little East Conference play Saturday, hosting Plymouth State University at 3 p.m. The Warriors are three-time defending LEC regular-season champs and bring an early 2-0 LEC record into that game.
