Men's Basketball: Beacons Stun Warriors, Complete Regular-Season Sweep

1/20/2024 7:57:00 PM

Box Score

BOSTON, Mass. -- For those who might have felt that it couldn't get any worse this year for the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team… they might have been wrong.

With Eastern (4-14, 1-8 LEC) on the threshold of its second straight Little East Conference road win and a split of the season series with the University of Massachusetts Boston (5-13, 4-5 LEC), the host Beacons scored four points in the final three seconds to send the Warriors to their eighth loss in ten games away from Geissler Gymnasium, 72-71, Saturday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center.

In a game which featured five ties and ten lead changes, Eastern gave away a nine-point lead over the final two minutes, and UMass capped a final 15-5 run when Emanuel Zayas (31 points) nailed his ninth three-pointer of the game on his 13^th attempt to cut Eastern's four-point lead to one with three seconds left, and Hector Perez' jumper off a steal and assist from Fidendi Francois at the buzzer provided the hosts with their third straight LEC home victory.

It marked the first time since that UMass has swept the regular-season series from Eastern since 2005/06 when the Warriors finished 9-17 overall, 3-11 in the LEC and the Beacons were on to their only conference tournament title. Since that season, the Warriors had won 31 of 37 against UMass heading into this year.

Saturday, Eastern had erased an eight-point deficit by outscoring the hosts16-4 over the final 6:30 of the first half to surged into a four-point, 34-30 lead at halftime, with first-year players Pedro Perry (New London), Cedrick Similien (Norwich) and Jeremiah Graham (Jacksonville, FL) all contributing three-point field goals in that surge.

After leading by nine with two minutes left, the Warriors took a seven-point lead into the final minute before the Beacons closed on a final 12-4. A four-point play (three-point field goal and free throws) by Zayas (19 second-half points) with 34 seconds left gave the Beacons new life, and after sophomore Dominick Dao (Terryville) re-stored Eastern's lead to five with two free throws with 26 seconds left, Zayas drained another three-pointer to make it 69-67 with 17 seconds left

Eastern failed on two free throws with 16 seconds left but first-year player Esco Greene (New Britain) grabbed the rebound of the miss and Dao all but clinched the victory with two more free throws with nine seconds left that made it 71-67.

Dao (5-of-6 FTs), last year's LEC Rookie-of-the-Year, enjoyed one of his best all-around games with 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, with Perry adding 11 points off the bench and first-year sophomore forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) totalling ten points, seven rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes off the bench. After three semesters at Keene State College, sophomore guard Michael Carothers (Queens, NY) played one minute in his Eastern debut.

Ironically, the Warriors had stolen a win by an identical 72-71 score last Saturday on the road against Plymouth State University when Perry sank three-pointers in the final seconds of regulation and overtime to give Eastern its first conference win.

Against UMass, Eastern shot 46 percent from the floor and had a +8 advantage on the boards but missed ten of 23 free throws (6-of-11 in the second half) and was outscored by 18 points from three-point range (and by seven from the stripe) as the hosts delivered on 14 of 26 three-point attempts – the most threes and best three-point percentage (54 percent) allowed this year by Eastern.

Eastern played without third-leading scorer and second-leading free throw shooter Ty Calloway (Enfield), a first-year junior transfer.

Zayas's 31 points – the most by an Eastern opponent this year – followed his game-high 23-point effort in UMass' 66-60 win over Eastern Feb. 2 at Geissler Gym. Connor Walden, a 6-foot-7 inch forward who did not play the first time around against Eastern, chipped in seven points, seven rebounds and six assists without a turnover in 24 minutes.

Eastern visits the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday at 5 p.m.

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