Box Score
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team was able to match its season-high in points in Wednesday evening's Little East Conference matchup with Rhode Island College. Unfortunately, the Warriors defense also allowed its season-high in points allowed and, because of that, fell to the Anchormen, 99-92, at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium to drop to 2-5 in their last seven games.

While Eastern (11-6, 3-5 LEC) had enjoyed recent home-court success against Rhode Island (9-8, 5-3 LEC) by winning nine of the previous 11 at Geissler Gym, RIC's final point total was its highest in 50 years on Eastern's court, which came n a 108-102 loss to Eastern in 1976.

The individual effort of Eastern junior forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) notwithstanding, the Warriors were never truly in contention after the Anchormen bolted from a one-point lead with seven minutes left in the first half with a 12-3 scoring run over three minutes that made it a ten-point, 41-31 lead with four minutes left in the first half.

Trailing by 16 points with seven minutes left after senior guard Loudon Chupas' conventional three-point play made it 84-68, Eastern made several modest runs over the final minutes. With Eastern down by eight with 44 seconds left, senior guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) connected on his fourth three-point field goal to pull Eastern as close as it would get in the second half, 94-89.

With Eastern fouling, RIC junior guard Mike Paquette sank a pair to help the Anchormen regain a seven-point lead, 96-89, with 37.6 seconds left, and freshman guard Noe Bom's uncontested breakaway with 15 seconds left allowed the visitors to regain a double-digit lead, 99-89.

Sparked by five points from Dao, Eastern jumped to a quick 7-0 lead in the opening minutes but the Anchormen never trailed after scoring 15 of the next 22 points, with Bom converting in the paint eight minutes into action go give his team the lead for good.

Sanchez, the New England leader in field goal percentage in his role off the bench this year, entered the game at the first media timeout six minutes into play with Eastern leading by two and finished with a career-high 34 points in 30 minutes. He was 12-of-14 from the floor (4-of-5 from distance) and 6-of-7 from the foul line in raising his field goal percentage to 62.8. He also grabbed seven rebounds.

The 1-2 tandem of junior wing Xavier Mendez and Bom were too much for Eastern to handle, as they paced four double-digit scorers. The pair combined for 47 points on 18-of-25 field goal shooting. Mendez, who had 17 points to keep Eastern at bay in the second half, was 9-of-15 from the floor and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds. Bom totalled 20 points, missing only one of ten tries from the floor.

Averaging just under ten points a game this year, Chupas exceeded that average in the first half and finished with 17 points (7-of-11 FG).

The Anchormen were outrebounded by two by Eastern – with junior forward Drew Soltis (Bridgeport) leading the Warriors with nine -- but shot a sizzling 64.9 percent from the floor, scoring nearly half of their points in the paint. The Warriors managed a season-high 13 three-point field goals but were just 7-of-21 from distance in the second half and, negating Sanchez' 12-of-14 field goal marksmanship, shot just 37.9 percent from the floor in the game.

Eastern returns from a bye weekend to host Western Connecticut State University next Wednesday at 7 p.m. in an LEC matchup. Eastern looks for a sweep after downing the Wolves in the conference opener for both schools back on Dec. 3, 78-73, at Feldman Arena.