WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team outscored the University of Southern Maine by 18 points over six minutes in the second half to wipe out a 12-point first -half deficit, winning its fifth straight home game, 70-56,  Saturday afternoon in a Little East Conference game at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium
 
Eastern (12-12, 9-6 LEC) trailed throughout the first half and by 12 points a minute before the halftime break but re-grouped in the second half, finally taking its first lead, 39-38, with 12 minutes left when senior guard Tyreice Woods (Hartford) picked the pocket of Southern Maine's (14-9, 8-6) Cody Hawes and converted it into a breakaway layup with 12 minutes left in the game.
 
Woods' points were part of a 21-4 scoring run over ten minutes in the second half that turned an eight-point, 38-30 deficit into a nine-point, 51-42 lead with six minutes left.
 
In avenging an earlier Little East road loss to an LEC opponent for the third time in three weeks,  Eastern moves three wins over .500 in the conference for the first time this year and reaches .500 overall for the first time since splitting its first four games of the year.
 

With one LEC regular-season game remaining Wednesday at Western Connecticut State University, Eastern is in sole possession of third place in the LEC, a half-game ahead of UMass Boston and Southern Maine (both of whom have two games remaining). The Warriors have split four games with UMass Boston and Southern Maine this year, while UMass Boston is 2-1 against Eastern and USM and USM 1-2 against Eastern and UMass Boston. UMass Boston defeated USM earlier this year, with the teams meeting in the return engagement at Boston Wednesday.
 
A nine-point winner over Eastern a month ago at Gorham, ME, Southern Maine – which brought a four-game winning streak to Willimantic -- scored the first five points of the game  and never trailed in the first half Saturday, scoring at will inside where it scored 26 of its 32 first-half points. After turning the ball over 13 times and shooting 32.3 percent from the floor (5-of-17 from long range) in the first half, Eastern reversed course after the break, shooting 45.9 percent and not allowing  a point off its three turnovers while turning 12 Southern Maine mistakes into 14 points of its own.
 
In the second half, senior guards Woods, Max Lee (Norwich) and Jalen Williams (Simsbury) combined for 39 of Eastern's 45 points on 15-of 27 shooting and  for 13 of the team's 17 individual rebounds. In the second half, Woods did not come off the court, scoring 15 points with four rebounds, three steals and two assists, with Lee adding 14 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes, and Williams ten points, five rebounds and two steals in 19 minutes.
 
In the game, Williams (20 points), Woods (18) and Lee (17) combined for 55 points, 17 rebounds, ten assists and nine steals.
 
Team rebounding leader and fourth-leading scorer Rakesh Tibby (East Hartford), a 6-foot-7 inch senior, did not return after going down with an ankle injury 25 seconds into the second half and Eastern trailing by seven and was replaced by senior forward Quinton Lott (Bridgeport). Lott played the rest of the way, grabbing four rebounds with just one turnover and picking up just one foul.
 
Southern Maine, whose balanced attack featured six double-digit scorers and a shooting percentage just under 60 percent in its earlier win over Eastern, got 17 points from junior guard Chance Dixon and 14 points and seven rebounds from Hawes, who was 7-of-10 from the floor. Accurate on 12 of 22 three-pointers in its earlier win over Eastern, Southern Maine managed just 2-of-12 from distance Saturday. Six-foot-five junior Clay Kuhn, who contributed 17 points earlier against Eastern, had two points on 1-of-4 shooting Saturday.
 
By finishing as either the No. 3 or No. 4 tournament seed, Eastern would host a first-round tournament game
Tuesday at 6 p.m.