WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Junior forward Taylor Salato (East Haven) had six points and senior Emily Jeamel (Manchester) three rebounds and a blocked shot over the final four minutes as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team scored the final 12 points of the game to eliminate Keene State College, 43-38, in the first round of the 2024 Little East Conference women's basketball tournament Tuesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Fourth-seeded Eastern (11-15), which had lost to fifth-seeded Keene (11-14) by 31 points when the teams met two weeks ago at Geissler Gym, advances to the tournament semifinals for the tenth straight year and will visit top-seeded Rhode Island College Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Murray Center in a re-match of last year's LEC championship game, won by RIC at Geissler Gym.
Keene, which ended its season on a four-game losing streak, never trailed through the first 38 minutes, but was 1-of-15 from the floor with three turnovers after taking a four-point lead into the final quarter. After matching its largest lead of the game (seven points) with just under four minutes left in the game, the Owls went scoreless the rest of the way, missing five field goal attempts, both of their free throws and turning the ball over twice on their final eight possession.
Over the final four minutes, Salato sank both of her field goal attempts, connected on both of her free throws, had a steal, assists and defensive rebound and Jeamel contributed all three of her rebounds in the game and one of her three blocked shots.
Following a rebound by first-year point guard Nevaeh Clark (Cromwell) off a Keene missed three-pointer, junior guard Kya Mayo's (Middletown) jumper pulled Eastern to within one, 38-37, with two-plus minutes left, and Salato's steal and jumper pushed the Warriors into their first lead, 39-38, with two minutes left. Jeamel's block and rebound set up Mayo for another jump shot following an Eastern timeout that made it 41-38, and Salato sealed it by canning two free throws in the final seconds.
In those final four minutes, Clark added two assists, a rebound and steal, with her steal and one of her assists setting up a breakaway layup by first-year guard Julia Knowles (Waterford) for her only bucket of the game that made it 38-35 with just under three minutes remaining.
Leading by a pair at halftime, Keene managed only 13 points in the second half. The Owls were 3-of-30 from the floor, including 0-of-7 from distance, over the final 20 minutes.
Eastern trailed by seven late in the first half after Valerie Luizzi's three-point field goal, but Clark swished a pair of free throws and Jeamel drilled a three-point field goal off an assist from Mayo over the final 35 seconds that cut the gap to two, 25-23, by the break.
Salato, second in the LEC in scoring and first in rebounding, was an uncharacteristic 4-of-17 from the floor but converted nine of ten free throws and finished with game-highs of 17 points and 16 rebounds, along with three blocks, two assists and two steals. Salato, who averaged 27 points and 15 rebounds when the teams split a regular-season pair, was held without a field goal in the first half on seven tries, finally breaking through in the first minute of the second half that tied the game at 25-all.
Mayo had ten points and six rebounds and Clark nine points, six rebounds, three assists and collected two of the team's season-tying nine blocks.
Luizzi led Keene with 14 points, with only two of them coming on 1-of-9 shooting in the second half. She also had eight rebounds. Little East Conference scoring leader Brynn Rautiola, a freshman guard, was limited to 29 minutes after picking up her third personal foul four minutes into the second quarter and her team leading by four. Rautiola finished with ten points and five rebounds but was 2-of-14 from the floor. Lilly Krysinski grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Owls had outscored Eastern by 39 points from three-point range in the regular season, but by only nine Tuesday. The LEC's top free-throw shooting team, Eastern was 13-of-14 from the stripe Tuesday while the Owls were just 9-of-15.
With the win, Eastern improved to 6-3 against Keene in the Little East tournament, and has won four of five first-round confrontations.