DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Sophomore forward Anna Barry (Andover) had a career and game-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting and added a game-high 11 rebounds to help lift the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team to a 76-63 Little East Conference victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.
A winner of five straight and 13 of its last 14, Eastern (17-3, 10-1 LEC) remains 1 ½ games ahead of Rhode Island College in the race for the LEC regular-season title and No. 1 tournament seed. The Warriors have five LEC regular-season games remaining, RIC four.
Barry, whose previous career-high of 18 points had come here last year against UMass Dartmouth (11-9, 6-5 LEC) in Eastern's overtime win over the Corsairs in the LEC tournament title game, recorded her eighth double-double of the year, third in the last four games. Barry was named last week's LEC and New England Player-of-the-Year.
Eastern equaled its season high (set Saturday) with nine three-pointers, canning a season-high 52.9 percent of its tries from distance. From long range, sophomore point guard Julie Keckler (Trumbull) was 4-of-8, sophomore guard Danielle O'Brien (Rockland, MA) 3-of-6 and senior guard Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire) 2-of-3.
Barry led four double-figure scorers in points and also blocked four shots, with Keckler adding 15 points and five assists, senior forward Mya Villard (Cromwell) 18 points, ten rebounds and six assists and Cretella 11 points, four assists and two blocks. Barry and Villard combined for 14-of-21 from the floor and 9-of-12 from the stri
The Warriors looked on their way to a rout before UMass ended the first half on a 15-3 run that sliced a 13-point deficit to one, 34-33, at the break. In the third quarter, however, Eastern put up 24 points for the second straight quarter on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor (4-of-6 from deep). Barry had eight points, five rebounds and two blocks in the quarter and the Warriors forced 4-of-16 shooting from the floor by UMD and took a 14-point, 58-44 lead into the final ten minutes.
Eastern has won three straight against the Corsairs since losing five straight to UMD.
Eastern hosts the University of Southern Maine Saturday at 1 p.m. in a conference game.