WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Sophomore forward Anna Barry (Andover) had ten points and nine rebounds in the second half, and senior guard Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire) 12 points in the second half, when the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team forced 11 Castleton University turnovers to pull away for a 62-50 Little East Conference win Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Eastern's (14-3, 7-1 LEC) tenth win in its last 11 games lifts the Warriors into a tie for first place with Rhode Island College, which had won a battle of LEC unbeatens last Wednesday at Geissler Gym to take over first place in the conference.
Castleton (10-7, 5-3 LEC), which had downed the Warriors at Geissler Gym in its first season in the conference last year, had a four-game winning streak ended.
Eastern was unable to pull away until the final five minutes of the game, when it broke from a two-point lead by scoring ten straight points to build a 12-point, 57-45 lead with just under three minutes remaining.
Senior forward Mya Villard (Cromwell), who scored her 1,500th career point in the game, keyed the decisive ten-point run by completing a conventional three-point play with a free-throw after grabbing her own missed shot, then muscled in a layup off a pass from Cretella before finding Barry underneath. Cretella's three-point field goal off a rebound from Barry made it 57-47 with 2:43 left and completed the run.
Eastern turned the ball over only twice in the second half en route to a season-low total of nine and scored 14 points off 11 offensive rebounds.
Cretella led the way with a season-high 19 points (on 7-of-12 shooting) – one point shy of her career high – and also added six assists and five rebounds without a turnover in 36 minutes. Barry posted her sixth double-double of the year with 14 points and 13 rebounds and Villard chipped in 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Junior guard Brook Raiche, who scorched Eastern for 26 points in Castleton's win at Geissler Gym last year, managed only three points on 1-of-11 shooting but handed four five assists and grabbed four rebounds. Senior guard Alexis Quenneville had 14 points and four rebounds despite being saddled with four fouls in the second half, and freshman guard Elise Magro had 14 points in 33 minutes coming off the bench for the first time this year.
The Warriors begin the second half of their 16-game LEC regular-season Wednesday by hosting Western Connecticut at 5:30 p.m. The Warriors won at Western Dec. 4 by a score of 72-60.