Box Score
GORHAM, Maine – Eastern Connecticut State University junior forward Jalen Hamblin's (West Hartford) 23 points off the bench were no match for the 1-2 punch of Bryce Lausier and Thomas Whelan, who combined for more than half of the University of Southern Maine's points on 16-of-28 shooting from the floor as the Huskies posted a 91-76 Little East Conference men's basketball victory Saturday afternoon at the Warren Hill Gymnasium.
 
With the loss, Eastern (12-7, 4-7 LEC) drops into sixth place – the final LEC tournament playoff spot -- in the LEC while Southern Maine (9-11, 5-6 LEC) and the University of Massachusetts Boston remain tied and share fourth place. Committing only five turnovers, UMass Boston upset host Rhode Island College Saturday, 84-79, at the Murray Center, handing the Anchormen only their third conference loss. Eastern is a half-game ahead of seventh-place University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (3-7 LEC), which trimmed Plymouth State University at home Saturday, 75-72.
 
Coming off a thrilling last-second overtime win over the UMass Dartmouth Wednesday, Eastern's bench outscored the bench of Southern Maine by 28 points but could not contain Lausier, a 6-foot-5 inch Division I graduate transfer, or 6-foot-1 inch junior Thomas Whelan, who scored his 1,000^th career point five minutes into the game.
 
Both players were 8-of-14 from the floor and combined to sink 20 of 22 free throws, with Lausier leading both teams with 29 points. Whelan did most of the damage in the first half by scoring 19 of his 25 points, while Lausier had half of his team's 42 second-half points, scoring 21 on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and 7-of-7 marksmanship from the line. The pair rank 1-3 in the LEC in scoring.
 
Lausier's 29 points are the second-most allowed to an opposing player by Eastern this year, two behind the 27 posted by Whalen against Eastern in December.
 
Hamblin, who equalled his career high with 29 points in an 11-point loss to the Huskies at Geissler Gymnasium Dec. 4, came off the bench three minutes into the game Saturday with Eastern trailing by nine (11-2) and totalled a team-high 23 points (8-of-15 FG, 7-of-10 FT) and grabbed six rebounds in 31 minutes before picking up his fifth personal foul with Eastern trailing by eight with five minutes left in the game.
 
Coming off a 14-point effort against UMass Dartmouth, sophomore guard Esco Greene (New Britain), had a career-high 18 points, 17 coming in the second half after he was held scoreless from the floor (on one shot) in the first half.
 
Trailing by six at halftime, the Warriors gave up a couple of quick baskets to Lausier to open the second half to fall back by ten before Greene virtually single-handedly cut the gap to one. The six-footer scored nine straight Eastern points and nine of 11 in the game on a jumper and two drives to the basket and a conventional three-point play.
 
Greene's drive off junior guard Dominick Dao's (Terryville) defensive rebound  three minutes into the half made it 55-54. Hamblin's free throw tied the game at 55-55 and sophomore forward Jeremiah Graham's (Jacksonville, FL) jumper following Greene's offensive rebounds capped a 14-2 scoring run gave the Warriors their first – and only – lead of the game, 57-55, four minutes into the half.
 
With the score tied at 57-all, Southern Maine answered Eastern's challenge with a 12-2 scoring run – capped by Lausier's three-point play -- that gave it a ten-point, 69-59 lead midway through the half. In one decisive six-minute stretch, Lausier and Whelan combined for 13 of their team's 15 points, and in the half, combined for five conventional three-point plays.
 
Dao was Eastern's third player in double figures with 14 (5-of-5 FT) to go along with a team-high seven rebounds, while Graham came off the bench for nine points and five rebounds in 28 minutes.
 
Eastern entered the game having won eight of ten games this year away from home while USM had managed only a split of eight home games. Eastern has lost three of its last four while the Huskies have captured three of their last four.
 
After going 15 years without sweeping Eastern in the regular season, USM posted its second straight regular-season conference sweep of the Warriors.
 
With five remaining LEC regular-season games, Eastern visits Western Connecticut State University Wednesday at 7 p.m.