Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team missed three consecutive shots inside the final minute and couldn't capitalize on three Rhode Island College missed free throws in the final 10.3 seconds in a 72-69 Little East Conference loss Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Riding a three-game conference win streak, Eastern (7-8, 3-3 LEC) led by two with 81 seconds left on a pair of free throws by senior Jake Collagan (Wethersfield) but junior Keyshaun Jacobs scored his team's final seven points of the game on a three-point field goal, conventional three-point conversion and the back end of a free throw with 1.2 seconds left.
After Collagan's two free throws, Eastern and had an opportunity to extend the lead after Rhode Island (13-3, 6-1 LEC) missed a jumper on its next possession. However, senior Jonatan Batista grabbed an offensive rebound and found Jacobs in the corner for this fifth three-pointer of the game (80th of the season) to give RIC the lead for good, 68-67, with a minute left.
The Warriors couldn't convert an off-balance attempt in the paint on their next possession. The 5-foot-10 inch Batista grabbed the rebound and Jacobs sank a jumper and the resulting free throw with 34.5 seconds left to make it 71-67.
Eastern missed its next two attempts around an offensive rebound by sophomore Sharown Fowler (Springfield, MA), Down by four, Eastern made it 71-69 on Collagan's drive with 2.6 seconds left and Jacobs sank the second of two free throws with 1.2 seconds left to close out the scoring. Eastern's last-second bomb from behind mid court came up well short as conference-leading RIC defeated the Warriors for the first time in the last seven meetings.
Freshman Shion Darby and Jacobs – ranked 1-2 in the LEC in scoring – combined for 45 of their team's points and nine of their ten three-pointers. Jacobs led all players with 25 points (8-of-9 from the stripe) while Darby had 20 points before being ejected following his second technical foul with 6:05 remaining and his team leading by one. Senior Benjamin Vezele – the LEC rebounding leader – had a double-double with 12 rebounds and 11 points, with Batista contributing ten rebounds, five points and five assists and junior Tim Deng nine points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes.
Collagan led Eastern with 16 points and four assists, with sophomore Seth Thomas (Norwich) adding 13 points. He was 5-of-7 from the floor (3-of-4 from distance) in 17 minutes but did not return to the floor after being assessed a technical foul with three minutes left in the first half and the Warriors trailing by two.
Fowler pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds in 20 minutes to go along with six points to help Eastern's bench own a 21-2 scoring advantage over RIC. Freshman Rakesh Tibby (East Hartford) was 5-of-5 from the floor and had a career-high ten points in a career-high 26 minutes.
Eastern remains in conference play Saturday at the University of Southern Maine at 3 p.m.
