WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Senior guard Jake Collagan (Wethersfield) had 21 points – including the 1,000th of his three-year Eastern Connecticut State University career – as the Warriors snapped a two-game losing streak with a 72-46 Little East Conference win over Castleton University Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Collagan led all players in the first half with 16 points to stake Eastern (8-9, 4-4 LEC) to an 11-point halftime lead, and later sank two free throws with 7:38 remaining in the game to reach and exceed 1,000 points in an Eastern uniform. Collagan finished the game with 1,001 in 74 games at Eastern – becoming the program's 32nd 1,000-point scorer in 80 years. In a four-year career which includes his freshman season at Keene State College, Collagan has 1,157 points in 105 games (11.0 ppg.)
Junior guard Cory Muckle (Westbrook) opened the game with a three-point field goal and Collagan hit a jumper off his own rebound to give Eastern a quick 5-0 lead en route to a 10-2 advantage four minutes into play. The Warriors never trailed.
Collagan also had six rebounds and six assists, and Muckle led all players with 22 points to move to within 92 points of 1,000 in his three-year Eastern career. Muckle was 8-of-16 from the floor, including 5-of-12 from distance, handed out five assists and had three steals.
Sophomore guard Seth Thomas (Norwich) added 15 points (6-of-8 form the floor) and six rebounds. Defensively, he limited Castleton's (2-15, 1-7 LEC) second-leading scorer, freshman Remy Brown (Boca Raton, FL) , to five points on 1-of-8 field goal shooting. Saturday, Brown had engineered his team's LEC upset win over Western Connecticut – its first LEC win in 23 games – with 26 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor.
Junior Amadoou Diakite led Castleton with nine points and junior Olluwadare Sowunmi (Harlem, NH) had a game-high nine rebounds. Team scoring leader Terrin Roy (Lawrence, NY) was held to two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Eastern hosts Western Connecticut in an LEC game Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.