PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Heading into Wednesday's Little East Conference contest at unbeaten conference leader Rhode Island College, the story of the seven-game win streak for Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball has been defense. Holding opponents to just 40.4 points per game during that span and winning by an average of 21.1 points per game, Eastern has started to hit its stride down the stretch heading into a crucial matchup against the Anchorwomen at The Murray Center.

A month after losing by double-digits at home against Rhode Island (17-5, 12-1 LEC) when they were without three key players, the Warriors (14-8, LEC 11-2) squandered an 11-point halftime lead Wednesday before coming away with a thrilling 60-57 overtime road victory. The team's eighth straight win snapped RIC's 13-game win streak.

The Warriors now trail RIC by one game with three regular-season conference games remaining, and lead UMass Dartmouth by a game in the loss column. The Warriors split the regular-season series with both teams.

The win streak ties Eastern's longest such streak since the 2019-2020 season and is the longest win streak since capturing nine straight from Dec. 12, 2009 to Jan. 19, 2010.

Rhode Island, which won last year's Covid-stained LEC tournament title which unseated two-time champion Eastern (which had cancelled its season), had not lost since last Dec. 1 against Trinity College. The loss also snapped its 24-game regular-season conference winning streak which had begun on Feb. 1, 2020.

Since a loss on Jan. 26, 2019 against University of Southern Maine, the Anchorwoman owned a 20-game winning streak at home in conference games and going back to 2019-2020 season, a three-game regular season winning streak against Eastern.

Eastern senior forward Anna Barry (Andover) – who was absent in the earlier loss to RIC -- led both team with 23 points (9-of-11 from the line) and ten rebounds and blocked three shots which moved her to within one of tying Lexis Foster's (2013-17) career block record of 174.  Senior guard Julie Keckler (Trumbull) – who had two points on 0-of-9 shooting in 25 minutes in the loss to RIC -- followed this time with 18 points (7-of-7 FT), a season-high eight assists and three steals. Four Eastern starters averaged 40 minutes in the overtime game.

With just over a minute left in regulation, Eastern senior guard Keckler found Barry one-on-one with RIC's Izabelle Booth at the post. Barry found her way to the middle and scored with 57 seconds left for a 48-47 lead. With 41 seconds left, RIC's Abby Phelan's missed a three-pointer that led to a Keckler bank-shot layup on the other end with 13 seconds left, putting Eastern up by three, 50-47 and  just one stop from the victory in regulation

Off a ball reversal from Maire Gallagher just outside the three-point line, however, junior guard Antonia Corsinetti found enough open space to nail a three-pointer and tie the game at 50-all with seven seconds left. Looking to end the game in regulation for Eastern, Keckler took the ball at half court for the Warriors and wiggled between two defenders to get off an off balanced shot that bounced off the back of the rim and out, forcing the game to overtime.

Free throws – made by Eastern and missed by RIC -- would be the name of the game in overtime as the Warriors knocked down their first six while the Anchorwomen missed their first four that played a large part in Eastern's 56-52 lead with three minutes left. After an exchange of baskets, RIC freshman forward Angelina Nardolillo knocked down a jumper to make it 58-56 before an offensive foul by Dunn and fifth foul by O'Brien with five seconds left sent Rhode Island's Madison Medbury to the line with a chance to tie. 

Medbury missed the team's fifth straight free throw in overtime on the first try before making the second to make it 58-57. Keckler was fouled with four seconds remaining and the conference's second-ranked free-throw shooter knocked down both free throws – keeping Eastern perfect on eight overtime free-throw attempts – to make it 60-57. Rhode Island's half-court heave fell shot and the Anchorwomen were unable to get off another shot after grabbing the rebound as time expired.

The Warriors hit the ground running in the opening frame with a 6-0 run led by Barry's opening layup and a pair of free throws around a layup by senior forward Aiyana Ward (Waterbury). It took Rhode Island College three minutes to earn its first basket of the contest after committing four turnovers in the first three minutes, part of a nine-turnover quarter.

Helping the Anchorwoman keep pace was sophomore guard Ashanti Frazier who opened the game with her team's first six points on 3-of-3 shooting. Frazier's six points would be all Rhode Island College would generate for offense as they shot 3-for-11 in the opening ten minutes. Meanwhile, six first-quarter points from Barry helped put the Warriors ahead by seven, 13-6 in the early going.

The six-point first quarter for the Anchorwoman was their lowest scoring first quarter and tied lowest scoring quarter overall this season.

Rhode Island pulled within five on three occasions during the second quarter at the 8:11 mark when Maire Gallagher hit a three, with 5:19 remaining with a layup by junior guard Maci Dorantes to cap off a 4-0 run, and then once more with 4:08 left after Dorantes hit another layup.

But the final four minutes and change of the first half would be owned by Eastern who used a 6-0 run from four consecutive points by junior forward Mariah Dunn (Meriden) and a Barry layup in the final minute to go up by double-digits for the first time in the contest, 27-16, at the half.

The 16 first half points for Rhode Island College tied their second lowest scoring output for a first half this season and was the second lowest points allowed in the first half by the Warriors who held Western Connecticut to 10 points on the road earlier this season.

Pacing the Eastern offense up to that point was Barry with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting while Frazier's eight points on 4-of-6 would give her half of the points for the Anchorwoman.
However, Rhode Island College would not go quietly into the night, using a third quarter blitz to work their way back into the game and take their first lead of the evening. Down 11 points, a 5-0 run by Dorante and  Corsinetti cut the Warrior lead to six just 1:40 into the third. Ward and Barry would score Eastern's next six points to regain a 10-point lead twice before the Anchorwoman struck again down 33-23.

Over the final six minutes of the third, Rhode Island College would go on a 13-2 run with a Corsinetti three, five points from Gallagher, three points from junior forward Izabelle Booth, and a pair of free throws by first-year guard Madison Medbury to take a 35-34 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.

The Anchorwoman 7-for-16 in the third and 3-of-7 from three after going 1-for-6 in the first half, outscoring the Warriors, who shot 3-of-12 from the floor, 20-8 in the frame. Rhode Island College would force four turnovers and commit none of their own after coughing up the ball 15 times in the first half.

Undeterred by the strong third by Rhode Island College, senior guard Danielle O'Brien (Rockland, MA) put Eastern back in front by two with a three before Barry's and-one opportunity allowed the Warriors to go up by five, 41-36, after a 6-0 run in the opening three minutes of the fourth. The Anchorwoman responded swiftly by going on a 6-0 run of their own to retake the lead, 42-41, after a Barry foul led to a pair of free throws for senior guard Abby Phelan which she converted with 3:53 remaining in regulation.

Up to that point in the game, Keckler only had five points, but within a span of 53 seconds, Keckler matched her point total on the evening with five consecutive points, giving Eastern another 5-0 run and a four-point lead, 46-42. In a quarter of runs for both teams, Rhode Island College would match that with another 5-0 run after their timeout as a layup by Frazier and three-pointer by Booth put them back ahead by one, 47-46, with 1:55 left.

Barry earned her seventh double-double of the season and sixth in the last nine games.

After Eastern was outscored 20-8 in the third quarter that put it a point down despite its 11-point halftime lead, Keckler responded with 13 of the Warriors' 25 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

As a team, the LEC leader in free-throw percentage (Eastern) shot 20-of-24 (83.3 percent) from the stripe, including a perfect 10-for-10 in the fourth quarter and overtime which proved to be the difference-maker against the Anchorwomen, who missed six of nine in that same stretch and finished under .500 (7-of-15) from the stripe in the game.

Despite leading the LEC standings, the teams combined for 37 turnovers and shot under 40 percent from the floor.

The Warriors return to Geissler Gymnasium Saturday for the first game of a home-and-home series (in a span of three days) against University of Southern Maine in a Little East Conference matchup at 1 p.m. This will be the first matchup between the two teams since the 2019-2020 season in which Eastern swept both games that season to push its win streak versus the Huskies to four and five of its last six in the head-to-head matchup.

Southern Maine currently sits two games back in the loss column in the LEC standings with five conference games remaining. A win by the Warriors on Saturday would ensure them a top-three seed in the conference tournament.