WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  Senior guard Tyreice Woods (Hartford) and senior forward Quinton Lott (Bridgeport) came off the bench to contribute big second halves as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team survived poor free-throw shooting in the second half to post a 68-65 Little East Conference win over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

Woods scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half and Lott grabbed all ten of his rebounds over the final 20 minutes as Eastern (8-11, 5-5 LEC) gained a regular-season split with UMass Dartmouth (5-13, 4-5 LEC), which fell to 2-8 on the road this year. The Corsairs had pinned a 78-71 win on the Warriors Dec. 7 at the Tripp Athletic Center.

With the win, Eastern moves into a tie for fourth place in the conference, one game behind third-place Massachusetts Boston. The top six teams in the final conference standings qualify for the LEC tournament beginning Feb. 21. UMass drops to sixth place, a half-game back of Eastern and the University of Southern Maine.

Although the Corsairs entered play ranking last in the LEC in scoring defense, UMass forced nine first-half turnovers and forced the Warriors into 3-of-13 three-point shooting in leading by as many as nine points in the first half and settling for a 35-29 lead at the break.

UMass lead throughout the early going of the second half before the Warriors used a run of nine straight points to move out to an eight-point 62-54 lead with four-and-a-half minutes left. Woods contributed eight of those points on a pair of jumpers and two driving layups and also had a steal and blocked shot.

A pair of free throws by Woods with 25.6 seconds left gave Eastern a five-point lead and the Warriors survived a fall-away corner three-pointer by Dhalyn Sanders-Dyer and a potential tying three-pointer at the buzzer by Sanders-Dyer after missing one of two free throws with 7.7 seconds left.

Eastern missed ten of 17 free throws in the second half but turned the ball over only four times in the second half in defeating UMass for the fourth straight time at Geissler Gym.

Senior guard Jalen Williams (Simsbury) scored more than half (15) of Eastern's 29 first-half points and finished with a game-high 20 points. Woods added 16 points and senior guard Hunter Baillargeon (Norwich) had nine points and five rebounds. Lott led Eastern with ten rebounds to go along with seven points.

Sanders-Dyer paced three UMass double-digit scorers with 18 points and also had ten rebounds and three assists and Jackson Zancan had nine points, and a game-high 11 rebounds. Nic Boyd scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half and also grabbed five rebounds.

Eastern played the final 16 minutes without second-leading scorer Dominick Dao (Terryville) who left the game with an injury with Eastern trailing by six. Woods replaced him in the lineup and tossed in 14 of the team's final 32 points.

Eastern visits Plymouth State University Saturday at 3 p.m.