Box Score
NEW LONDON, Conn. – With four starters returning this year, most observers felt that the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team would have little trouble equalling (or exceeding) last year's total of six wins. Few, however, felt that this would be achieved less than three weeks into the season.
 
Tuesday night, in a game where neither team led by even as many as a half-dozen points, the Warriors managed to maintain a slim upper hand most of the way (although they trailed by a point on three separate occasions late in the game), finally securing their sixth season-opening victory when 6-foot-7 inch junior Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) blocked the shot of Connecticut College's (2-3) 6-foot-6 inch sophomore Dylan Watson to preserve a one-point lead  with just under ten seconds left in a 61-60 non-conference victory at the Charles Luce Field House. Eastern's sixth win a year ago came in the Feb. 17 season-finale at Geissler Gymnasum..
 
After allowing its opponent to score 70 or more points in 20 of 25 games (eight times giving up 80+) a year ago, Eastern (6-0) once again displayed the defensive intensity this year that was the foundation of nine 20-win seasons in a ten-year span from 2009 through 2019. Through its first six games this year, Eastern has limited opponents to a paltry 56.7 points per game – tops in the Little East Conference by a wide margin by limiting them to 34.9 percent shooting from the floor (22.3 percent from distance). No opponent this year has reached  70 points in a game against the Warriors, with two incapable of scoring as many as 50.
 
Averaging 71 points per game, Conn was held to 25 points on 25.0 percent shooting in the first half, finishing at 35.1 percent for the game.  For its part, Eastern shot at least 50 percent for the fourth time in six games. The Warriors were 22-of-44, out-rebounded the taller Camels (six players standing 6-foot-6 or taller) by 12, and made enough free throws (12-of-19) to offset Conn's 13-of-14 marksmanship from the stripe.
 
There were exactly five ties and six lead changes in each half. Leading by two (27-25) at the break, Eastern never trailed until the hosts took their first lead since the final minute of the first half, 55-54, on a pair of free throws by senior guard Cam Schainfeld with 3:34 remaining. By sinking one of two free throws for the third time in the second half, Hamblin then gave Eastern the lead for good, 61-60, with 79 seconds left. Soon after, Conn missed a potential go-ahead corner-three and Eastern committed a shot clock violation that kept the Warriors' one-point lead intact with 23.1 seconds left.
 
Hamblin then came up big with his second block of the game (team-leading tenth of the year) against Watson, who managed to grab the rebound but gave the ball back to Eastern by stepping out of bounds with three seconds left. Not yet in the shooting bonus, Eastern inbounded twice from its own back court, with junior forward Julian Sanchez' (Willimantic) pass over the top of the defense into the front court draining the final seconds.
 
With a game-high 18 points (12 in the second half without a turnover) Sanchez had his fourth straight double-digit game, with Hamblin submitting his first double-double of the year with 15 points and a game and season-high 12 rebounds. Junior guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) had eight points, six assists, two blocks, four rebounds and a steal and just two turnovers in 37 minutes.
 
Schainfeld led the Camels with 15 points (11 in the second half), Watson adding ten points and eight rebounds and junior forward Elias Espinosa tossing in 14 points.
 
The win is the third in five days for the Warriors in New London, with Eastern winning the Cadet-Mariner Classic over the weekend against Mitchell College (70-62) and U.S. Coast Guard Academy (57-48).
 
Eastern  hosts the University of Southern Maine a week from Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Little East Conference opener for both teams. The Huskies (4-1) visit Saint Joseph's College (ME) Sunday at 7:30 prior to visiting Eastern. USM finished 14-12 (9-7 LEC) last year, sweeping Eastern for the first time in the regular-season series since 2007-08. The Huskies were the LEC tournament's No. 4 seed (losing a first-round game, 73-70, to No. 5 Rhode Island College), while Eastern finished out of the playoffs, sharing eighth place in the nine-team conference.