Box Score
First Round
Eastern Conn. 75, SUNY Poly 71
Wesleyan U.109, Saint Joseph's College, ME 83
 
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  Julian Sanchez (Willimantic)  scored all of his career-high 13 points in the second half -- scoring five points to spark a run of nine straight points over those final 20 minutes – as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 75-71 victory over SUNY Poly in the opening game of the 2023 ECSU Holiday Invitational Friday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
 
Eastern (2-9) faces Wesleyan University (8-2) in Saturday's 2 p.m. championship game. The Cardinals got 20 or more points from three players and shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in a 109-83 victory over Saint Joseph's College, ME (3-8) in Friday's second game.
 
SUNY Poly (6-6), which had won four of its previous five to surge over .500 entering play, faces Saint Joseph's Saturday at noon in the consolation game.
 
Eastern Conn. 75, SUNY Poly 71
 
The home win was the first in five games this year for Eastern, which survived 13 lead changes to post its first victory since downing Medgar Evers College, 92-70, in the consolation game of the University of New England Jim Beaudry Classic Nov. 12.
 
Trailing by two at halftime, Eastern tied the game in its first possession of the second half on a jumper by Dominick Dao (Terrvyville) and took the lead for good on a pair of free throws from the 6-foot-4 inch Sanchez. After the Wildcats cut the lead to two with five minutes left, Sanchez nailed his only three-pointer off a pass from 6-foot-7 inch Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) to ignite a run of nine straight points that lifted the Warriors into their largest lead, 66-55, with three minutes left.
 
In that decisive 9-0 run, Dao and Pedro Perry (New London) converted layups off steals, and Sanchez scored off his own offensive rebound.
 
In the closing minutes, the Wildcats sliced an eight-point deficit to three on Elijah Smith's only three-point field goal of the game off a steal by LJ Randle, a pair of free throws  by Cheickne Toure and an inside basket by Josh Ernst, but a missed free three with 30.2 seconds left prevented SUNY from making it a two-point game and Escoe Greene (New Britain) and Dao swished free throws in the final 15.9 seconds.
 
In the second half, Sanchez was 5-of-6 from the floor and grabbed five of his game total of six rebounds. He did not turn the ball over in 25 minutes in the game.
 
Sanchez and Dao each finished with 13 points and combined on ten rebounds, while Hamblin had his fourth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds despite picking up two early fouls.
 
In addition to Sanchez, Ty Calloway (Enfield) provided a boost in the second half for Eastern. The first-year transfer guard had eight of his game total of 12 points in the second half and also contributed two assists and two steals.
 
Anthony Rose, a 6-foot-5 inch sophomore, and the 6-foot-2 inch Toure combined for 50 of the Wildcats' total, sinking 14-of-17 from the stripe. Rose led both teams with 26 points and also grabbed ten rebounds. Toure had 24 points, four assists and two steals, while Randle added nine points, six rebounds, five steals and four assists.
 
Wesleyan U.109, Saint Joseph's College, ME 83
 
Featuring two starters standing at least 6-foot-8 inches tall, Wesleyan outscored Saint Joseph's (no starter bigger than 6-foot-5) by 30 points in the paint and turned the ball over only nine times in improving to 4-1 in its last five and sending the Monks to their fifth loss in the last six outings.
 
Coming off last year's 16-9 campaign, Wesleyan led by seven points midway through the first half before blowing the game open with 12 straight points over four minutes that ballooned the lead to 19, 40-21. After the Cardinals missed a pair of three-pointers, Wesleyan got points from five different players in that 12-0 run. During that stretch, Saint Joseph's failed on seven straight shots – six of them from three-point range.
 
Wesleyan got 86 points and 24 rebounds and 67 percent field goal shooting from four starters. Team scoring leader Shane Regan of Wesleyan led five double-digit scorers with a game-high 29 points (12-of-16 FG). He was 5-of-8 from distance with five assists and no turnovers in 26 minutes.  Jackson Cormier (8-of-11 FG) and 6-foot-9 inch Jared Langs (9-of-14 FG) each added 20 points, with Langs helping the Cardinals to a 44-26 advantage on the boards with a game-high 12 rebounds.  Nicky Johnson added 17 points (8-of-13 FG) and eight assists Wesleyan, which had only five turnovers from its starters.
 
Wesleyan shot 58.4 percent from the floor in the game, with its 8-of-18 free throw shooting (44.4 percent) not a factor in the runaway victory.
 
Julian Llopiz came off the bench for a team-high 16 points (five three-pointers) in 17 minutes for the Monks, who cashed in 15 three-point baskets. Ashtyn Abbott had 15 points on 7-of-9 FG shooting and five rebounds, team scoring leader John Paul Frazier  adding 13 points (4-of-9 from distance), and Camryn Yorke came off the bench for 11.