Box Score BOSTON – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team went scoreless from the floor over four minutes as the University of Massachusetts Boston used a game-ending 11-5 run to post a 73-65 Little East Conference victory Saturday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center.
Eastern (8-11, 4-6 LEC) trailed by ten after six minutes but used balanced scoring thereafter to cut the gap to four by halftime, and took its first lead four minutes into the second half. With Eastern down by only one, UMass Boston (13-7, 7-4 LEC) outscored the Warriors 18-9 over the final seven minutes to earn its first regular-season sweep of Eastern in 14 seasons.
Sophomore guard Thomas Close's (East Hampton) only three-pointer of the game with 4:23 left pulled Eastern to within two, 62-60, but the Warriors were outscored, 11-3, managing only three free throws until a meaningless basket in the final seconds closed out the scoring.
Junior guard Cory Muckle (Westbrook) led Eastern with 16 points and added six rebounds. In his second career start, sophomore forward Sharown Fowler (Springfield, MA) had 13 points (7-of-8 from the floor) and nine rebounds and junior guard Shawn Gashi (Syracuse) added ten points on 4-of-5 shooting. Close had seven points, five rebounds and five assists.
Junior guard Michael Boyd led four double-digit scorers for UMass with 18 points to go along with eight assists, while senior center Mark Munroe had 17 points and 12 rebounds and junior guard Charles Mitchell 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Eastern played without two of its top three scorers, one of which also is the team's leading rebounder.
Eastern visits conference-leading Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Warriors look for a season sweep after downing the Corsairs, 87-83, three weeks ago at Geissler Gymnasium.
