WESTFIELD, Mass. – Three Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball starters combined for 38 points but seven additional players managed only ten in total as the Warriors dropped into the consolation game of the Westfield Gas & Electric Tip-Off Tournament following a 57-48 first-round loss to Muhlenberg College Friday night at the Woodward Center on the Westfield State University campus.

Eastern (1-1) faces Regis College (0-4) Saturday at noon while host Westfield (2-1) meets Muhlenberg (4-0) in the 2 p.m. championship game.

After scoring 80 points in an eight-point overtime win over Lasell University in the season-opener at home nine days ago, Eastern was outscored 46-24 in the middle periods against Muhlenberg and led only twice -- and never again after the first six minutes.

The Warriors trailed by 11 points three minutes into the fourth quarter but threw away several chances to cut deep into the lead  because of costly turnovers.

Down by nine points, 49-40, four minutes into the fourth quarter, Eastern scored five in a row on Emily Jeamel's (Manchester) first career three-pointer and  six-foot Taylor Salato's (East Haven) short jumper that cut the gap to four. Coming out of a timeout, however, Muhlenberg regained momentum on a three-pointer by season scoring leader Ava Connolly, then pushed the lead back to nine on a steal and breakaway layup by Rachel Saxton with 3:26 left.

Still, the Warriors remained in contention. Twenty seconds after Saxton's breakaway layup, first-year forward Alyssa Paquette (Claremont, NH) sank a three-pointer to make it a six-point deficit with 3:06 left, Eastern had a chance to make it a one-possession game after Salato pulled down Emily Unger's miss with 2:30 left. Eastern turned the ball over on that possession, and the six-foot Unger made the Warriors pay with her third three-pointer that made it a nine-point margin again with 1:40 that virtually sealed Eastern's fate. Muhlenberg had taken control early in the second quarter when it used a 15-2 run which began in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter to move out to a 14-point, 29-15 lead four minutes into the second quarter.

Eastern trailed by 11 at halftime and was able to cut just one point off the deficit after three quarters.

Salato followed her 27-point (7-of-14 FG), nine-rebound effort in the opener with 15 points and 13 rebounds, with Kya Mayo (Middletown) adding 12 points (5-of-9 FG) and Paquette 11 points. First-year point guard Nevaeh Clark (Cromwell) added seven rebounds and four assists.

Six-foot-one inch first-year forward Grace Smith (Willington) had three rebounds and a blocked shot in six minutes off the bench in her collegiate debut, while first-year guard Julia Knowles (Waterford) converted her first career shot with a jumper on Eastern's first possession of the fourth quarter that knocked two points off a ten-point deficit.