CASTLETON, Vt. – What a difference a month made when the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team was beaten by 31 points at home by Keene State College earlier this week after downing the Owls a month earlier on the road.

The same could be said – in reverse – Saturday at Glenbrook Gymnasium, when Eastern (10-13, 8-6 LEC) avenged a 26-point Little East Conference home loss to VTSU Castleton (10-13, 4-10 LEC) by racing to a 17-point lead after six minutes pushing the lead to 29 in the second half and going on to a 70-55 win in a game that was not as close as the final score might indicate.

The victory – Eastern's  fourth in the last six games – moves the Warriors from a tie for fourth place with Keene State College into a tie for third place with the University of Southern Maine (10-13, 8-6 LEC). On Saturday, the Owls were upended by visiting Western Connecticut, 59-55, and Southern Maine was beaten at top-tier team University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 67-40.

Eastern, which split the regular-season series with Southern Maine, closes out the regular season at unbeaten LEC leader Rhode Island College Wednesday and by hosting Plymouth State University next Saturday. Earlier this year, Eastern lost to RIC, 87-35 at home and trimmed Plymouth State on the road, 59-52.

At stake in the final week of the regular season is a first-round LEC tournament home game Feb. 20 afforded the No. 3 and No. 4 tournament seeds, which will host the No. 6 and No. 5 seeds with a chance to advance to the tournament semifinals on the road against either Rhode Island College (14-0 LEC) or UMass Dartmouth (12-2 LEC)

Against Castleton Saturday, Eastern was 12-of-16 from the floor in a 26-point first quarter that equalled its highest-scoring quarter of the year and gave it an 18-point lead after ten minutes. By halftime, the Warriors led by 19 points after shooting 63 percent from the floor, with the only suspense remaining centered around junior forward Taylor Salato's (East Haven) second challenge this year of the program's game scoring record of 36 points (spoiler alert: she did not) that barely eluded her in a 35-point performance roughly at Keene State on Jan. 9.

Salato converted her first seven shots of the game and was 10-of-14 from the floor in the first half on the way to a 22-point effort by halftime that left her 14 points shy of breaking the record of former career scoring leader and Eastern Hall of Famer Missy Kowolenko, who set the mark a day shy of 31 years ago.

Sparked by her 7-of-7 start, Salato finished 15-of-23 from the floor in the game en route to matching her uniform number with 33 points – her fourth game of at least 30 points this year. With a game-high 14 rebounds (her ninth double-double of the year), the six-footer pushed her season rebounding average over 10.0 to 10.2. She is first in the LEC in rebounding and second in scoring (18.9), the latter mark currently the third-best in a season in program history behind Mya Villard (19.9) and Kowolenko (19.3).

In the January loss to Castleton – the Spartans' largest margin of victory this year against an LEC opponent – Salato grabbed 17 rebounds but shot a season-worst 4-of-22 from the floor that precipitated the Warriors' season-worst team shooting percentage of 21 percent.

First-year point guard Nevaeh Clark (Cromwell), the LEC Rookie-of-the-Week the last two weeks, scored 11 second-half points and totalled 16 points  and six rebounds in the game as the pair combined for 49 of Eastern's scoring total. First-year forward Alyssa Paquette (Claremont, NH) had six points and five rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench and junior guard Kaya Mato (Middletown) chipped in seven points and a career-tying eight rebounds.

The team's final 53.4 shooting percentage was its second-best of the year. Led by senior forward Emily Jeamel (Manchester), the Warriors accumulated a season-high nine blocked shots. Jeamel had three and Salato and Paquette two each.

Castleton, which shot 29 percent from the floor (3-of-14 from distance), stands two games out of the sixth and final tournament spot behind Plymouth State University, which edged visiting UMass Boston, 57-54, Saturday.