Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. –Senior guard Jordyn Nappi (Southington) had 18 points and senior center Lexis Foster (Groton) grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds and blocked five shots to lead the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team to its third consecutive Little East Conference regular-season sweep of Western Connecticut State University, 57-52, Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
With its tenth straight LEC win and 13th overall triumph in the last 16 games, Eastern (16-6, 10-1 LEC) holds a one-game lead over second place Massachusetts Dartmouth with three LEC regular-season games remaining. The teams meets Saturday at Dartmouth, MA, the Warriors having posted a 78-51 triumph over the LEC pre-season favorites Jan. 11. Eastern has won the last two LEC regular-season and tournament titles.
A close game throughout the first quarter, Eastern built a seven-point lead early in the second quarter, only to watch the Colonials fight back to tie the game going into the halftime break. Eastern methodically built a nine-point lead after three quarters, with the lead reaching as high as 13-points with 6:00 remaining in the game. Western was able to claw its way back within striking distance, shortening the Warriors lead to three points with remaining. Nappi hit two of four free throws in the final twenty seconds to reach the final margin of five-points
In a game where each of Eastern's starters played at least 33 minutes and combined for all but 20 possible minutes – with starting forward Kelsey Santagata (Stamford) missing her fourth straight game -- freshman Mya Villard (Cromwell) scored 16 points in her fourth straight start, while Foster – ranked third nationally in blocks-- moved to within three of her 100th block of the season and to within sixth of establishing a career record of 159.
Junior point guard Kelly Reardon (Holyoke, MA) had six points, four rebounds, four assists and a block in 35 minutes for Eastern.
Eastern limited Western (13-9, 5-6 LEC) to 31.8 percent shooting as the Colonials became Eastern's 13 opponent this year failing to reach 60 points. Western played without leading three-point field goal shooter and second-leading scorer Jancy Sherwood, who had topped Western with 15 points in Eastern's 75-73 overtime victory over the Colonials three weeks ago in Danbury.
Nappi sank her first three free throws against Western to keep her perfect (25-of-25) in her career against the Colonials but later failed on two straight in the final 20 seconds. Her third straight free throw, however, restored a four-point margin to Eastern's lead with 18.4 seconds left, and Nappi canned the back end of a two-shot attempt with 1.3 ticks remaining to seal the win.
Senior guard Emily Dobson had 15 points for Western but was the only player to crack double figures, while senior forward Alyssa Eannotti had eight points and six rebounds.
