Box Score
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team jumped to a 15-point lead seven minutes into the game and eased to an 86-57 victory over first-time opponent Pennsylvania College of Technology in the first round of the Eastern Holiday Invitational Monday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

With its fifth straight win, Eastern (8-1) remains unbeaten in four home games and advances to the tournament championship game Tuesday at 2 p.m. against Nichols College (9-2). The Bison led for 32 minutes and were finally able to shake Wesleyan University (8-3) in double overtime, 86-83 in a battle of teams featuring five-game winning streaks.

Wesleyan, coming off last year's 30-2 season and NCAA Final Four appearance, faces Penn College (1-10) in Tuesday's consolation game at noon.

Trailing by one in double overtime, Nichols scored six in a row, taking the lead for good on six-foot senior guard Javen Flowers-Smith's (24 points, six assists, five rebounds, four steals) steal and driving layup off his midway through the second five-minute extra session.

Nichols survived despite missing half of its 18 free throw attempts and being outrebounded by 15 (18-7 on the offensive boards) on the boards. The Bison scored 22 points off 17 Wesleyan turnovers.

Eastern got out of the gate quickly against Penn, holding the Wildcats scoreless from the floor for the first five minutes in racing to a 12-1 lead.

Coming off the bench as he has done in every game this year, Eastern junior forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) had a game-high 28 points to go along with seven rebounds in 24 minutes. Ranked first in New England and ninth nationally in field goal percentage, Sanchez missed only one of ten shots to improve his season percentage to 69.1.

Senior guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) had 20 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals in 27 minutes, senior forward Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) 13 points, six rebounds and four assists in 18 minutes and junior forward Drew Soltis (Bridgeport) eight points and a game-high 15 rebounds.