CASTLETON, Vt. --  Junior point guard Jalen Williams (Simsbury) had a career-high 30 points and tied his career high with eight rebounds in helping the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team keep pace in the Little East Conference with a not-as-close as the final score indicates 76-66 victory over Castleton University Saturday afternoon at Glenbrook Gymnasium.
 
The top four teams in the Little East all won Saturday as the Warriors remained two games behind leader University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which routed visiting University of Southern Maine, 96-57.

Eastern (13-7, 8-4 LEC), which won for only the third time in nine road games this year, shot 53.6 percent from the floor in rolling up an 18-point, 42-24 halftime lead. The Warriors led by as many as 23 seven minutes into the second half and by  19 with five minutes left before going scoreless from the floor the rest of the way.
 
Williams had nine three-point field goals – sinking five of six during one 12-minute stretch in the second half – to finish one shy of tying the program record set by All-America Tarchee Brown in 2015 and equaled by Jake Collagan in 2018. Senior Thomas Close (East Hampton) converted six of 12 three-points as Eastern finished with 17 three-pointers as a team – two shy of the game mark set in 2017.
 
Williams sank half of his 20 shots and was 9-of-15 from three-point range, while Close equaled his career high with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from distance. Sophomore guard Max Lee (Norwich) had eight assists and four steals to go along with three points and three rebounds.
 
Castleton (5-15, 0-11 LEC) got 17 points in 32 minutes off the bench from Johnny Torrence but got a total of only 17 points from four starters.
 
Eastern completed the regular-season home-and-home sweep of Castleton, which watched a 13-point halftime lead dissolve in a 61-60 loss to Eastern a month again at Geissler Gymnasium. The Warriors have split the LEC season series with leader UMass Dartmouth and Keene State College, the latter leading Eastern by 1 ½ games in the standings.
 
Eastern visits Rhode Island College Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., looking for its second conference sweep. The Warriors posted an 80-60 victory over the Anchormen Jan. 17 at Geissler Gym for its season-high fifth straight win.