CASTLETON, Vt. – Five players finished in double figures as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team set a record for Little East Conference regular-season wins en route to its fourth outright Little East Conference regular-season title in 26 years under head coach Denise Bierly.
As the No. 1 seed, defending tournament champion Eastern (21-4, 14-2 LEC) hosts an LEC tournament semifinal-round game Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of a Tuesday first-round game between No. 4 UMass Boston and No. 5 UMass Dartmouth. If it wins Thursday, it would host Saturday's championship game at 1 p.m.
Eastern concludes the regular season with nine wins in its final 11 games, both losses to Rhode Island, which finishes one game behind the Warriors and also earns a first-round tournament bye. In the other Thursday semifinal, Rhode Island will host either No. 3 Castleton or No. 6 Keene State College.
This year, the Warriors were the pre-season favorite to win the title for the fifth time and have won or shared the LEC regular-season championship each time. Twice in four years, they have gone on to the LEC tournament title.
Six-foot sophomore forward Anna Barry (Andover) recorded her 11th double-double of the year with game-highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds in pacing five double-figure scorers. The LEC leader in blocked shots (ranked 15th nationally), Barry tied the program record with eight blocked shots (four in the first quarter). She now has 74 blocks this year (2.96 per game)– second-most in a season -- and 115 in 53 career games (2.17 per game).
Sophomore guard Danielle O'Brien (Rockland, MA) and senior guard Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire) each added 11 points, with sophomore guard Julie Keckler (Trumbull) and senior forward Mya Villard (Cromwell) chipping int ten each.
Barry was 5-of-7 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the strip and is now shooting 65.3 percent from the field in her last seven games. Eastern starters shot 54.1 percent (20-of-37) from the floor and were 11-of-14 from the stripe.
Eastern scored the first five points and used a 25-point first quarter to take a 14-point lead after one quarter and was never threatened. Cretella (two), O'Brien (two) and Keckler (one) all nailed three-point in the quarter as the Warriors converted five of seven from distance over the first ten minutes.
Castleton junior guard Brooke Raiche was held to eight points on 2-of-12 shooting, finishing 3-of-33 against Eastern in two games this year.
Castleton (15-10, 10-6 LEC) lost for only the third time in ten home games this year as Eastern rolled to its 13th victory away from home in 14 tries (10-1 on its opponent's court). Regardless of the outcome, the Spartans had been guaranteed an LEC tournament first-round home game Tuesday. Castleton had won three straight and five of six before losing for the second time this year to Eastern, which had won, 62-50, Jan. 22 at Geissler Gym.
The 21 wins in the regular season are the most in 11 years, when the Warriors won 23 en route to a 25-4 record. It is the seventh time under Bierly that the team has won at least 21 prior to the LEC tournament.
Having been seeded No. 1 five previous times, Eastern has gone on to reach the LEC championship game four times, winning in 2015 and 2016. The Warriors downed top-seeded and host UMass Dartmouth in overtime as the No. 2 seed in last year's LEC title game for the program's third time in the last five years, sixth overall.