Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Fourth-seeded University of Massachusetts Boston clipped a nine-point deficit to three with three minutes left before Eastern Connecticut State University scored the final six points to post a hard-fought 57-48 win in the semifinals of the Little East Conference tournament Friday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Top-seeded Eastern (22-4) moves into the championship game for the fifth time in the last six years after defeating UMass Boston (20-7) for the eighth time in as many LEC post-season tournament games. The Warriors will host No. 2 seed Rhode Island College (22-4) Sunday at 1 p.m. The teams will be meeting for the 11th time in the LEC tournament (Eastern leading 9-1) but in the finals for the first time. Eastern is the defending LEC tournament champion and has captured three of the last five titles. Rhode Island last reached the final in 2014, when the No. 1-seeded Anchorwomen defeated No. 2 University of Southern Maine.
Last year, Eastern became the third straight No. 2 seed to defeat the top seed in the final. Eastern won 14 of 16 LEC regular-season games this year, both losses coming to Rhode Island.
Having beaten UMass Boston twice by an average of over 25 points during the regular season, Eastern struggled Friday throughout most of the game against the Beacons. In a game which featured eight leads changes and four ties, the Warriors wiped out a five-point halftime deficit by scoring the first seven points of the second half and carried a six-point, 43-37 advantage into the final quarter.
With Eastern leading by nine with just over three minutes left, the Beacons made a final push with a six-point run of their own that pulled them to within three with 70 seconds left. Senior forward Alecia Quinones' block on six-foot Eastern sophomore forward Anna Barry (Andover) made it a one-possession game, but UMass Boston missed three shots on its next possession – two of them three-point attempts.
While UMB couldn't convert the equalizer, Barry completed a stellar evening by scoring five straight points. She sank two free throws with 17 seconds left to make it 53-48. Sophomore guard Danielle O'Brien (Rockland, MA) then came up with her third steal of the game following a UMB timeout, and with 6.9 seconds left, Barry sank a layup off a pass from senior guard Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire). Barry was intentionally fouled on the play, connected on one of two free throws, and sophomore guard Julie Keckler (Trumbull) closed it out with a free throw after Eastern maintained possession due to the intentional foul.
At left: Anna Barry shoots over Geanna Williams of UMB on the way to two of her 21 second-half points in Eastern's Little East Conference semifinal win Friday evening at Geissler Gymnasium. (Photo by Erin Winsor '20)
Barry was dominant when Eastern outscored UMB, 23-12, in the third quarter to wrest the momentum from the Beacons. In the third quarter, Barry scored 14 of her career-high 25 points on 7-of-8 shooting to single-handedly outscore Boston over those ten minutes.
Barry was 11-of-20 from the floor en route to her career-high point total. She also had eight rebounds, four blocks and three assists, while O'Brien was 4-of-9 from three-point range and finished with 12 points. Senior forward Mya Villard (Cromwell) led the Warriors with ten rebounds, with five of her seven points coming from the foul line.
Junior guards Jalani Jackson and Tahjai Mazyck combined for 26 points and ten rebounds for UMass Boston. Six-foot junior forward Joie Grassi had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
