BOSTON – Senior guard Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire) tied her career high with 20 points to pace four double-digit scorers as the surging Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team remained atop the Little East Conference with a 78-61 victory over the University of Massachusetts Boston at the Clark Athletic Center Saturday afternoon.

A winner of 12 of its last 13, Eastern (16-3, 9-1 LEC) remains perfect (11-0) on the road this year by completing the regular-season sweep of UMass Boston (16-4, 7-4 LEC), which had won four straight and seven of its previous eight, losing for only the second time in eight home games this year. The Beacons fall 2 ½ games behind conference-leading Eastern, which has handed UMB its two worst defeats of the year. Eastern had won, 88-54, when the teams met at Geissler Gymnasium just under a month ago.

With the win, and Rhode Island College's  68-63 overtime loss at Castleton University, Eastern opens up a 1 1/2 game lead over the Anchorwomen, who have lost two straight. RIC had forced overtime with a buzzer-beating three-pointer Saturday against Castleton, which was beaten, 68-49 at Rhode Island Jan. 4

Cretella's game-high point goal is her highest mark of the season. Twelve of her points came on a career-high four three-point field goals. She was also 4-of-4 from the foul line.

Six-foot sophomore Anna Barry (Andover) followed with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting (she entered play ranked second in the LEC in field goal percentage) and added seven rebounds and three blocked shots, giving her 50 this year and 90 in her 47-game career.

Senior forward Mya Villard (Cromwell) had her fifth double-double of the year with 15 points and a season and game-high 13 rebounds. Villard guarantees herself of finishing second all-time in points. She has 1,538 in her 102-game career, three ahead of Sandy Mosley (2002-07). Four-time All-America Allison Coleman (2000-04) is the program's all-time leader with 1,991 points.

Sophomore guard Danielle O'Brien (Rockland, MA) hit both of her three-pointers early in the second half to help the Warriors pull away from a two-point (31-29) halftime lead. O'Brien also had five assists, while Cretella and sophomore point guard Julie Keckler (Trumbull) handed out six each. Keckler finished with 12 points. She was 3-of-3 form the floor (2-of-2 from distance) and 4-of-5 from the foul line.

Eastern sank a season-high half (9-of-18) of its three-point field goals and equaled his season-low with nine turnovers. Barry, Villard and O'Brien each committed only one turnover in an average of 35.3 minutes.

First-team All-LEC forward Joie Grassi led UMB with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while junior guard Tahjai Mazyck added 11 points. UMass junior guard Jalani Jackson – a first-team All-LEC player and the third-leading scorer in the LEC this year at 15.3 ppg. -- managed only six points and four assists before being ejected for a hard foul on Barry two minutes into the fourth quarter and her team trailing by eight points. Jackson had 17 points on 5-of-17 shooting from the floor in two games this year against Eastern.

Eastern visits defending LEC regular-season champion Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in a re-match of last year's LEC tournament title game, won at UMass Dartmouth by Eastern in overtime. The Warriors won, 83-54, when the teams met Jan. 7 at Geissler Gym.