Box Score
FRANKLIN, Mass. --  The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team missed 12 of its final 14 shots and turned the ball over three times over the final six minutes, surrendering a 17-point lead early in the second half in a 70-63 non-conference loss to Dean College Wednesday evening at Pieri Gymnasium.
 
Leading by 12 at halftime, Eastern (1-6) pushed the advantage to 17 two minutes into the second half before Dean (4-3) scored 15 unanswered points and 20 of the next 22 to take a one-point, 45-44 lead with 12 minutes left.
 
Keyed by three-point field goals from Dominick Dao (Terryville) and Elijah Jean-Guillaume (New Haven) and five inside points from Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford), Eastern regained the momentum and took a five-point, 57-52 lead with six minutes left before faltering badly the rest of the way.
 
Guarded primarily by Eastern's Dan Wellington (Bridgeport), Dean season scoring leader AJ Weston (19.2 ppg.) was limited two first-half points before finding enough space in the second half to score 19 and finish with a team-high 21 points. Although he was just 5-of-17 from the floor, Weston canned nine of ten free throws in the game and sealed the Dean win by draining five of six freebies over the final 41.9 seconds.
 
With Eastern down by six, 65-59, the 6-foot-7 inch Hamblin was fouled while scoring on his own offensive rebound with 1:59 left, but missed the free throw which would have made it a one-possession game, and after Dean missed the front end of a one-and-one try, Eastern missed consecutive shots, then turned the ball over with 51 seconds left that led to Weston's five game-clinching free throws.
 
Weston scored his team's final ten points. Leading up to his final five free throws, Weston drilled a long, clutch three-pointer that gave his team a four-point, 63-59 lead with 3:30 left, and after the Warriors missed a three-pointer and turned the ball over, Weston swished a jumper to make it 65-59 with 2:51 left.
 
In the early minutes of the game, Eastern scored 12 unanswered points to go from two down to ten up (16-6) and maintained a slim lead that reached 12 by the half thanks to a final 9-2 scoring push. In those 12 straight points, Hamblin scored four before Jeremiah Graham (Jacksonville, FL) took over by scoring eight of his game total of ten points in a three-minute span, all coming in succession on a slashing drive to the basket, putback and two jump shots.
 
After opening the game shooting 8-of-14 from the floor with only one turnover in building its ten-point,16-6 lead in the first five minutes, Eastern shot just 35.6 percent from the floor (15.4 percent on 26 three-point tries) in the game and committed nine second-half turnovers.
 
Eastern led for 82 percent of the game but trailed over the final five minutes after Dean's Moussa Berete took the long rebound of an Eastern missed three-point attempt to the hole for a 58-57 Bulldog lead with 4:50 left.
 
Rarely the tallest man on the floor this year, Hamblin was just that against Dean and he exploited the advantage with a game-high 25 points (10-of-18 FG) and game and career-high 19 rebounds.
 
Dao followed Hamblin with 13 points and eight rebounds and Sheriff Bilewu (Waterbury) provided an inside presence off the bench with four blocked shots and two rebounds in 16 minutes. Wellington  handed out five assists to improve his season average to 4.7, and also chipped in seven points.
 
Tyler Newsome followed Weston for Dean with 16 points (eight in each half) on 7-of-10 shooting and also grabbed nine rebounds.
 
Hoping to stop a four-game losing skid, Eastern opens Little East Conference play Saturday hosting the University of Massachusetts Boston at 1 p.m.