NEW LONDON, Conn.—A year ago, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team was surrendering an average of 77 points a game through its first four games, losing three of them on the way to a six-win season.
Through the same number of games this year, the Warriors have given up a Little East Conference-best 58 points per game. Non-surprisingly, Eastern has won each of those four games, the latest coming Friday night in a 70-62 non-conference victory over previously-unbeaten Mitchell College (4-1) at the Yarnall Athletic Center in the first game of the Cadet/Mariner Classic.
The Warriors play the back end of the two-game tournament when it visits the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Saturday at 4:30 at Roland Hall. The Bears (3-1) won Friday's late game at the Yarnall Center, 86-83 over Mass College of Liberal Arts. Eastern and Coast Guard have met only three times (Eastern winning all three) in history, the last coming 43 years ago in 1981 in the Warriors' 56-49 victory in the championship game of the Second Annual Brand-Rex Tip-Off Tournament at Geissler Gymnasium.
While Eastern was holding Mitchell to 35 percent shooting from the floor, Eastern's one-two punch of junior forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) and junior guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) sparked the Warriors' offense by combining to score 46 points on 18-of-28 shooting (64.3 percent) overall (8-of-11 from distance) and teaming for 20 rebounds and nine assists. Sanchez led Eastern with a career-high 24 points (10-of-14 FG/2-of-2 from distance), grabbed nine rebounds and handed out five assists while Dao had 22 points (8-of-14 FG/6-of-9 from distance), a game-high and career-tying11 rebounds and four assists.
Eastern, which did not win its fourth game last year until January 13 (4-12 record), trailed only once in the game – when an opening turnover set up by a steal and dunk from 6-foot-5 inch Wilton Causey en route to its fifth win without a loss in the series. An early 10-3 scoring run over two minutes improved a three-point lead to ten, 24-14, with eight minutes left in the half. Sophomore guard Pedro Perry's (New London) jumper and Dao's three-point field goal off an assist from sophomore guard Esco Green (New Britain) following a miss by Causey sparked the run and made it 19-11, and Perry's conventional three-point play gave Eastern that first double-digit lea (10)d. Perry finished with ten points and only one turnover in 20 minutes off the bench.
Leading by eight at halftime, the Warriors shot 57.1 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Mariners by six in playing Mitchell even in the second half to preserve the eight-point advantage. Mitchell never got closer than six points in the second half, at which point the Warriors exploded for a 21-6 scoring run that gave them their largest lead at 21 points, 55-34, with ten minutes left in the game. In that burst, Dao connected on four consecutive three-pointers, all courtesy of passes from junior guard Michael Carothers (Queens, NY).
The Warriors sank a season-high nine three-pointers, compiling a season-best 52.9 percent from distance and shooting at 50 percent or better for the third time this year. Eastern's final +9 rebounding margin (39-30) was also a season-high. In addition to six assists, Carothers chipped in a career-high nine rebounds.
Senior guard Jaylyn Clardy and junior swingman Eddie Volkerts, who average more than half of Mitchells' 82 points per game, combined for 37 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Clardy led everybody on the floor with 28 points (three above his season average) but Volkerts was held to nine points on 2-of-12 shooting – ten below his average.