WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Freshman guard Cade Ensinger (Deep River) came off the bench in the final eight minutes to contribute three assists, two rebounds, a steal and two free throws as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team survived a tug-of-war with Rhode Island College to post a 72-68 Little East Conference victory Wednesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
 
In a game which involved 11 lead changes and seven ties, Eastern (3-2, 1-2 LEC) got 26 points from four players off the bench to avenge a season-opening 79-75 loss at Rhode Island (1-4, 1-4 LEC) Jan. 30 at the Murray Center. The Warriors have won three games in five days while Rhode Island dropped its third straight and had a three-game win streak against Eastern ended.
 
Rhode Island led by eight points seven minutes into the game but Eastern held the Anchormen without  a basket and to just one free throw over the final three minutes of the first half to tie the game at 32-all at the half.
 
The Warriors never trailed after sophomore forward Rakesh Tibby (East Hartford) scored inside off an assist from freshman guard AJ Edwards (New Haven) with eight minutes left in the game. Eastern broke the final tie with 2:30 left when Ensinger found Tibby inside to give Eastern a 65-63 lead. Seconds later, first-year sophomore transfer guard Jalen Williams (Simbury) grabbed a rebound of a missed RIC free throw, then connected on a three-pointer off a feed from Ensinger on the other end of the court, and Tibby's third inside basket in seven minutes off a pass from Edwards gave Eastern its largest lead, 70-64, with 38 seconds left.
 
Ensinger, Edwards, Tibby and junior guard Tyreice Woods (Hartford) came off the bench to total 26 points,16 rebounds, nine assists, four steals and two blocked shots in an average of 20 minutes. Woods had nine points on 4-of-6 shooting, Tibby six points and five rebounds, Edwards six points, five rebounds and three steals and Ensinger five points, four rebounds and four assists.
 
Senior guard Cory Muckle (Westbrook) led Eastern with 18 points in 40 minutes and  converted both ends of a one-and-one on his only two free throw attempts with 22.6 seconds left to close out the scoring.
 
Williams had 12 points and eight rebounds and first-year sophomore transfer forward Quinton Lott (Bridgeport) scored a career-high ten points and grabbed six rebounds.
 
Freshman guard Dante Law paced RIC with a game-high 19 points while sophomore guard Shion Darby and freshman guard Jordan Riley each had 18.  Darby recovered from a 1-for-11 shooting performance in the first half to net 15 points on 50 percent shooting in the second half, with Law adding 12 points (5-of-7 FG) over the final 20 minutes. Darby, last year's LEC Rookie-of-the-Year, scored his team's final seven points, but surrendered a steal to Woods in the final seconds that preserved Eastern's four-point edge.
 
Law and Darby had combined for 49 of their team's 79 points on 20-of-36 shooting in RIC's earlier win over Eastern.
 
Freshman guard Jared White of RIC  helped his team to a slim +1 rebounding edge by grabbing 11 (all on the defensive end), eight in the second half.
 
Eastern hosts Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday at 1 p.m. in an LEC game.