WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – For Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball, it has been a tale of two halves in their last two home games inside Geissler Gymnasium. After trailing by 10 points again, the Warriors (17-7, 12-4 LEC) closed out their regular season with a resounding second half and overtime performance to propel themselves past Little East Conference rival Western Connecticut State University (12-11, 6-9 LEC) for a thrilling 69-64 victory in overtime.
Eastern was led by their trio of guards in junior guard Jalen Williams (Simsbury) and double-double performances from junior guard Meikyle Murray (Bronx, NY) and sophomore guard Max Lee (Norwich) en route to their sixth straight win, their longest winning streak of the season.
Murray earned his third double-double of the year, scoring 21 points and reeling in 11 rebounds while Lee finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Both guards played the entire 45 minutes and scored six points each in overtime.
Down seven with 4:11 remaining in regulation, Eastern's defense would force WestConn to go 0-for-6 from the field and score the final seven points of the second half to tie the game up at 53 apiece. It started with a three from senior guard Thomas Close (East Hampton) before Lee nailed a pair of free throws to bring the Warriors within two.
After Murray's three-point attempt with 15 seconds was blocked by junior guard Kendall Robinson, the junior guard gathered the rebound before driving hard to the basket and getting fouled by junior forward Jahiem Young. Murray hit both free throws with 11.4 seconds remaining to give Eastern its first tie of the game and force overtime.
The Warriors took their first lead of the game, 57-55, with 3:45 left in overtime after back-to-back layups by Lee. However, the difference in the overtime frame would be a 6-0 run by Eastern with the score knotted up at 57, highlighted by an emphatic dunk from Murray off a turnover forced by Lee, spearheading the Warriors to victory.
Leading by four with 50 seconds left in overtime after a pair of free throws from senior guard Wesley Nelson, junior forward Quinton Lott (Bridgeport) put an exclamation point on the 16-point extra session for Eastern, converting a dunk opportunity after Murray hit him with a pass behind the defense.
The win earned the Warriors a sweep of WestConn after losing three of their last four games in the head-to-head matchup and being swept in the home-and-home series during the 2019-2020 season.
Eastern also clinched the number two seed in the Little East Conference Tournament with the win, after a play-in game between University of Southern Maine and Castleton on Monday, the Warriors will take on the LEC's seven seed in the first round on Tuesday evening.
From the jump, WestConn took the lead and never looked back in the first half, leading by as many as 11 points with 3:06 remaining in the opening 20 minutes of play. The closest the Warriors would get was 7-6 with 16:39 remaining in the first half before WestConn went on a 5-0 run to regain control by six points.
Forcing Eastern to commit 11 first half turnovers to their 10 turnovers, WestConn held a 10-2 advantage in points from turnovers and 20-8 advantage in the paint. The Warriors shot 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) and 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from three in the first half.
Coming out of the break, WestConn senior guard Matthew Turner scored the first five points for the team, breaking open a 15-point lead for WestConn with 18:46 remaining, their largest lead of the game.
Using a 13-2 run over the span of five minutes, Eastern cut their 14-point deficit down to just three behind a pair of threes from Williams and four points from Murray to trail with 12:54 left, 40-37. WestConn would respond with a quick 7-0 run behind another five points by Turner to up their lead back to double-digits, 47-37, before the Warriors matched with a 7-0 run of their own to trail by just three again.
Murray scored 14 points in the second half and overtime while Lee added in 13 points in the same stretch along with nine rebounds, five assists, and five steals.
Williams scored 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting (5-for-8 from three), including 12 points in the second half to help lead the second half comeback.
After scoring five points in the first half, Turner went 7-for-11 shooting in the second half and overtime with 19 points.
Eastern will have five days off before hosting the first round of the Little East Conference Tournament next Tuesday against a team to be determined at a time to be announced. As it currently stands, the Warriors will face off against either UMass Boston, Western Connecticut State University, or Rhode Island College who are all vying for the five through seven seeds with the regular season coming to a close on Saturday afternoon.