Box Score
DANBURY, Conn. --  Senior forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) had 14 points and eight rebounds in the first half to help the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team to a ten-point halftime lead and it was (just) enough to carry the Warriors to a 78-73 victory over Western Connecticut State University in the Little East Conference opener for both teams Wednesday evening at Feldman Arena.
 
Behind Sanchez – who finished with his third double-double of the young season with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds – Eastern (5-1, 1-0 LEC) was able to end a four-game losing streak at the hands of WestConn (3-3, 0-1 LEC)… but without some anxious moments over the final minutes.
 
Eastern never trailed after junior guard Ray Carter's (Springfield, MA) jumper eight minutes into the game and matched its largest lead of 13 points on junior guard Pedro Perry's (New London) inside bucket  that vaulted the Warriors into a seemingly comfortable 75-62 lead with but five minutes remaining.
 
A series of missed field goals, free throws and turnovers by Eastern – which did not score from the floor after Perry's bucket with five minutes left -- punctuated a 11-1 scoring run by the Wolves which drew the hosts to within three points, 76-73,  with 7.9 seconds remaining. With Eastern inbounding the ball 94 feet from the basket following a WestConn timeout, senior 1,000-point scorer Dominick Dao (Terryville) was promptly fouled, and swished his only free throw attempts  of the game with 5.9 seconds left that ultimiately sealed the Warriors first win over WestConn on the Wolves' home floor after losses each of the past two years.
 
WestConn held a slim lead throughout the early going before Eastern used a modest 9-3 run late in the first half to move out to an eight-point, 36-28 lead with just over three minutes left in the first half. The Warriors led by 12 and had a chance to tack on two more before the break after the Wolves missed two free throws with 24.2 seconds left, but WestConn freshman Avery Taitt-Christina swiped a lazy Eastern pass and cashed in the steal for an easy two points that made the halftime margin ten points.
 
Eastern never trailed in the second half, and after the Wolves pulled even at 48-all six minutes into the stanza, Dao's three-pointer gave Eastern the lead for good, and a rebound by Sanchez and pass from senior point guard Michael Carothers (Queens, NY) to junior forward Drew Soltis (Bridgeport) gave the Warriors a five-point lead, 53-48.
 
The Warriors shot 58.6 percent from the floor (8-of-12 from distance) that enabled them to withstand 12 first-half turnovers and build their ten-point halftime lead. Eastern's totalled a season-high 11 three-point field goals on 20 tries and held a +12 advantage on the boards while WestConn missed nine of 11 three-point tries and managed to convert only nine of 16 free throws.
 
Eastern featured five double-figure scorers for the second straight game.  Behind Sanchez, Dao and Perry (off the bench) each added 14, Soltis adding 12, and senior forward Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) 11 points and eight rebounds. Sanchez was 7-of-10 from the floor that improved his season percentage to 65.6 (42-of-64). Dao and Soltis were both 5-of-7 from the floor and 2-of-2 from the stripe. Dao, Carothers and senior point guard Javontae Jones (Lumberton, NJ) all had five assists, Sanchez chipping in four. Dao, a 6-foot-2 inch guard, also blocked two shots.
 
WestConn, which has reached the championship game of the LEC tournament each of the last three years,  got 22 points (10-of-15 FG) from 6-foot-7 inch sophomore Marcel Henry. The Wolves played without second-leading scorer Nick Boyce and got only one field goal and three points from third-leading scorer Tayejon Lynch, a senior guard.
 
Eastern faces Western New England University Saturday at 8 p.m. in a non-conference game in the first round of the Norwich University Hock Classic at Andrews Gym. The Golden Bears (6-1) finished 23-7 last year and won two NCAA tournament games before being eliminated by eventual national champion Trinity College, 79-42. The Golden Bears, who defeated defending LEC champion Keene State College two weeks ago, are coming off their first loss by a 76-74 score to visiting University of Hartford (6-1) Wednesday night.