Box Score

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Keyed by Dominick Dao's (Terryville) three-point field goal with 22 seconds left, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team snapped the 11^th and final tie of the game by scoring the final six points in a 67-61 victory over Anna Maria College in the opening round of the Eastern Holiday Invitational Sunday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
 
In the other first-round game, St. Mary's College of Maryland (7-5) scored the first 19 points of the game on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor over the first seven minutes, while Hunter College (2-8) failed on its first 12 attempts from the floor as the Seahawks eased to a 98-64 victory.
 
Eastern and St. Mary's will meet in Monday's 2 p.m. championship game after Hunter faces Anna Maria in the noon consolation game. Eastern and St. Mary's have met twice previously, Eastern winning 117-83 at the Nasson College tournament in 1970-71 and the Seahawks prevailing, 94-88, in the title game of the Eastern Tip-Off Tournament in 2007.
 
Eastern Conn. 67, Anna Maria 61
 
Now 8-1 all-time against Anna Maria (2-8), Eastern (7-2) led by as many as nine points four minutes into the second half before the Amcats used a 14-4 scoring run – sparked by Trent Smith's only three-point field goals of the game-- over seven minutes to surge into a one-point 55-54 lead with eight minutes left.
 
After a pair of free throws by Anna Maria's Gabriel Armstead tied the game for the 11^th time, 61-61, the Amcats turned the ball over on their final three possessions – thanks to steals by Dao and Cedrick Similien (Norwich).
 
 Eastern missed two free throws in a span of 16 seconds in the final minute, but Julian Sanchez' (Willimantic) freebie gave Eastern the lead for good, 62-61, with just under a minute left. Soon after Dao turned his steal and Sanchez' assist into a three-point field goal that made it 65-61 with 22 seconds left and Dao nailed down the win when he sank both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with 13.6 seconds left off a steal by Similien to account for the final six-point margin.
 
Sanchez had 14 of his team-high 18 points and seven of his game-high 11 rebounds in the second half, scoring half of his team's points and grabbing nearly half of its rebounds over the final 20 minutes en route to his third straight double-double. He was 7-of-12 from the floor without a turnover in 33 minutes.
 
Dao, limited to five minutes and four points in the first half due to an injury, finished with 12 points, with Similien reaching double figures for the first time this year, with a career-high 13 points. Point guard Michael Carothers (Queens, NY) had six points and five assists for the Warriors and did not commit a turnover in 20 second-half minutes.
 
With Eastern playing without top scorer and second-leading rebounder in 6-foot-7 inch Jalen Hamblin, 6-foot-3 inch Jeremiah Graham (Jacksonville, FL) had six points and two rebounds in 21 minutes in his first start of the year, while 6-foot-3 inch Sheriff Bilewu (Waterbury) came off the bench to grab nine rebounds and block two shots and convert his only field goal attempt (without a turnover) in a season-high 27 minutes
 
Armstead led Anna Maria with a game-high 19 points but managed only four points after the break. Ray Carter added 12 points, a team-high six rebounds and five assists.
 
The win stopped a two-game losing streak for Eastern, playing only its second game at home this year, first since absorbing an 84-73 Little East Conference loss to the University of Southern Maine Dec. 4 in its conference opener.
 
Anna Maria, which had won two of its last four, dropped to 0-5 on its opponents' home court and to 1-6 away from home. The six-point loss was its closes margin of defeat this year.
 
St. Mary's 98, Hunter College 64
 
Hunter needed seven minutes and 30 seconds to record its first field goal, but was outscored by only nine points over the final 29 minutes of the game after trailing by 25, 33-8, 11 minutes into action. The Hawks outscored the Seahawks, 22-13, over the final nine minutes of the first half to cut the gap to 16, 46-30, at halftime.
 
Six-foot-six inch freshman Yassine Idrissa led six SMCM double-figure scorers with 19 points (9-of-11 FG) to go along with five rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes. Six-foot-4 inch Kyree Smith added 17 points and was 7-of-14 from the floor to pace a team which connected on 61.4 percent of its shots.
 
Hunter outrebounded the Seahawks by seven but  SMCM turned 18 Hunter turnovers into 27 points and a +13 point margin in that department. Sal Saputo of Hunter led all players with 24 points and nine rebounds but Jack Meyers was the only other Hunter player in double figures. He had 12 points and six rebounds without a turnover in 18 minutes.