Men's Basketball: Warriors Look to Build Upon Recent Home Success vs. Anchormen

1/20/2026 7:20:00 PM

Team Records:
Eastern: 11-5 (3-4 LEC)
RIC 8-8 (4-3 LEC)

Series History:

In a series which dates back to the 1941/42 season between teams in the old New England Teachers College Conference (NETCC), the teams meet for the 141^st time in Eastern's most extensive men's basketball rivalry, the Warriors owning an 81-59 lead.

Eastern swept RIC en route to a perfect 14-0 season in its fourth intercollegiate season in 1941/42 but the Anchormen handed the "Teachers" one of their only two losses when the teams split a two-game set the following year (it did not prevent Eastern, however, from posting a second straight NETCC title).

As two of the Original Six Little East Conference teams, Eastern and RIC split a pair – each team winning on its opponent's court – in the first year of the LEC in 1986/87. They met a third time that year, with Eastern eliminating the host Anchormen in the first round of the LEC tournament, 66-65.

More recently, Eastern won five straight vs. RIC but the Anchormen have taken three of the last four. The teams split last year's regular-season set, each winning at home. RIC won at the Murray Center, 75-61, but the Warriors gained the split with a 79-52 victory here in the penultimate game of the year that kept their LEC post-season tournament hopes alive.

In last year's win, Eastern's defense limited RIC – which was averaging 78 ppg. – to 20 first-half points by shooting nearly 50 percent and turning the ball over only six times. In RIC's win at Providence, the hosts erased a 12-point halftime deficit. RIC's Ousmane Kourouma – the national rebounding leader at the time – had his 14^th double-double with 16 points and 17 rebounds.

Eastern's best stretch in the rivalry came between 2011 and 2019 with a run of 14 wins in 18 tries, including six in a row; one of RIC's most successful stretches came between 1963 and 1970, when the Anchormen amassed a 16-game winning streak which was finally halted in a wild 118-113 home victory in the second of three meetings that year

Game Notes:

Eastern and Rhode Island College meet at the halfway point of the Little East Conference regular season. Rhode Island shares fourth place in the LEC standings with Keene State College while Eastern shares sixth place with UMass Dartmouth.

Following a 7-3 start, the Anchormen are 1-5 in their last six games while the Warriors are 2-4 since opening with a 9-1 record. At home, Eastern is 6-2 while RIC is 5-3 away from the Murray Center, 4-3 on its opponent's home court.
RIC and Eastern are ranked at the top of the LEC chart in rebounding, with the Warriors' +9.8 rebounding margin easily the conference's best. Having lost two All-LEC players from a year ago -- including LEC rebounding leader and fifth-ranked LEC scorer Kourouma -- RIC features two of the LEC's top five rebounders in Tyriek Weeks (8.9) and Xavier Mendez (8.1) while Eastern counters with Julian Sanchez (8.8), Drew Soltis (7.5) and Jalen Hamblin (7.3).

The 6-foot-5 inch Mendez (16.3) and 6-foot-5 inch Weeks (15.3) and freshman Noe Bom (14.7) are RIC's double-digit scorers. Sanchez (16.6), Hamblin (16.1), Dominick Dao (13.0) and Ray Carter (11.1) all average double figures for Eastern.

RIC is coming off of Saturday's home loss to conference leader UMass Boston. The Anchormen outrebounded the Beacons by eight but shot only 38 percent from the floor while UMB sank half of its field goal attempts. Mendez and Weeks combined for 35 points and 25 rebounds for RIC. In Eastern's Saturday loss at Southern Maine, the Huskies outscored Eastern by 16 points from the foul line in their 11-point win. Carter led the Warriors with 22 points and Soltis had ten rebounds... Eastern shot 39 percent from the floor in that game...

Upcoming:

Half of the Warriors' final eight regular-season games – all in the LEC – are at home, beginning a week from Wednesday, Jan. 28 against Western Connecticut State University. The game marks the beginning of the back end of this year's eight home-and-home LEC series. The Wolves (12-5, 5-3 LEC) will be idle Wednesday before hosting Southern Maine Saturday (Eastern receives a bye Saturday), looking to avenge a 76-72 at Gorham Dec. 6.

Against WestConn, Eastern won the LEC opener for both teams, 78-73, Dec. 3 at Feldman Arena. The triumph was the second of six straight wins for Eastern and the second of three straight losses for the Wolves.

In a tight all-time series which began in the Warriors' second intercollegiate season in 1939/40, Eastern holds a slim 74-69 advantage over the Wolves. After being swept by WestConn each of the last two seasons, Eastern looks for its first sweep of WestConn in four years when they meet next Wednesday. The Warriors survived this year's first contest, 78-73, after taking a 13-point lead into the final nine minutes. WestConn scored 24 points off Eastern's 20 turnovers in a game where both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor.