FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – In the pre-season, 22^nd-year Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball coach Bill Geitner was confident that this year's team would have an easier time scoring points than his team from a year ago.
 
His concern, however, centered around his team's ability to stop the opponent from getting more than their fair share of points.
 
A season-opening 95-80 non-conference loss at Farmingdale State College Wednesday night at the Walter A. Lynch Sports Center proved the veteran coach right on both counts.
 
While the Warriors scored ten points above their average of a year ago against Farmingdale, they allowed 25 points more than their average last year, when their 69.1 scoring defense ranked them third in the Little East Conference.
 
Against the Rams, sophomore guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) picked up where he left off last year as the 2022/23 Little East Rookie-of-the-Year scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in 38 minutes.  He was 10-of-16 from the floor, including 7-of-10 from distance and 3-for-4 from the foul line.
 
Dao, however, was surrounded mostly by inexperience in the starting lineup in the form of 6-foot-7 inch sophomore forward Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) and freshmen Jeremiah Graham (Jacksonville, FL) and  Esco Greene (New Britain), all three of whom were making their first collegiate starts. Joining them making his start at Eastern was junior transfer guard Ty Calloway (Enfield).
 
While Eastern shot 51 percent from the floor Wednesday, the Warriors were outrebounded by 16 by the taller Rams, who outrebounded Eastern on the offensive glass by 19-3, turning those second chances into 21 points. In a 53-point second half, the hosts more than doubled Eastern's rebounding total and shot 58 percent from the floor in scoring 36 points in the paint.
 
Farmingdale, which edged Eastern by two points last year at Geissler Gym and went on to win 21 games last year and qualify for the NCAA tournament, turned the ball over only seven times and parlayed 14 Eastern turnovers into 22 points of its own.
 
Hamblin, limited to 22 points in 13 games off the bench in his first season last year, followed Dao with a career-high18 points (8-of-11 FG) and matched Dao with eight rebounds. Calloway, who saw limited time off the bench last year on the University of Saint Joseph's Sweet 16 team, scored a collegiate-high 14 points against Farmingdale and also chipped in five rebounds and four assists.  Escoe led Eastern with six assists and turned the ball over only twice in 30 minutes.
 
Farmingdale got double figures from four of its starters, including a team-high 21 from senior guard Aaron Davis and a game-high 12 rebounds from six-foot-five inch swingman Nick Hurowitz.
 
Eastern faces Wheaton College Saturday at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the University of New England Jim Beaudry Classic at the Harold Alfond Center.