WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The afternoon belonged to Taylor Salato (East Haven)… in more ways than one.
On an afternoon when the senior captain stole the spotlight by becoming the 21st player in program history to reach 1,000 points, the six-footer also owned the stat sheet by scoring 13 of the team's first 15 points and more than half of the team's final point total in Eastern Connecticut State University's 62-58 non-conference women's basketball loss to Wheaton College Saturday at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Salato, the only Eastern player to score from the field through the first 14 minutes, totalled at least 30 points for the fifth time in her career, finishing one shy of her career-high and two behind the program's game record with 34 points, coming off the floor only once.
The All-Little East Conference forward amassed nearly 60 percent of the team's point total. She was 12-of-21 from the floor and grabbed six rebounds, blocked two shots and stole two balls. The program's all-time leader in free throw percentage, Salato was 10-of-11 from the stripe.
After losing by 30 a year ago to a Wheaton (4-9) team which won only 40 percent of its games, Eastern (4-9) trailed by 11 at the half and by 14 with four minutes left in the third quarter, but battled back into contention in the fourth quarter.
With five minutes left in the game, the Warriors trailed by only six (52-46) after a pair of free throws by first-year guard Liv Cassesse (Wallingford), but the Warriors turned the ball over twice and missed a shot on their next three possessions. Kennis Jasperson's third three-point field goal of the game restored Wheaton's nine-point lead with two minutes left and the Lyons sank three of four free throws over the final 30 seconds to help Wheaton win its first road game of the year after seven losses.
Salato, who needed 14 points to become 31st-year head coach Denise Bierly's 14th 1,000-point scorer, entering the day scored 13 of Eastern's first 15 points through the first 12 minutes, moving to within one of 1,000 on a pair of free throws early in the second quarter. In an effort to reach the milestone, Salato failed on her next four shots from the floor before taking a pass from Cassesse and swishing a short jumper with 30 seconds left in the half.
Wheaton, playing without out leading scorer and second-leading rebounder Abby Fernandes (who remains at 999 career points) was whistled for 21 fouls in the game (eight more than Eastern) and was outscored by seven from the stripe. The Lyons withstood foul trouble to three key players, one of whom fouled out with just under a minute remaining and two others who finished the game with four fouls.
The Lyons started one player standing 6-feet-2 inches tall (Regan Keyter) and one at 5-foot-11 (Nasha Arnold), and came off the bench with 5-foot-11 inch Nasa Arnold and 5-foot-10 inch Cheyenne Colbert, with their height advantage allowing them to out-rebound Eastern by 14. Wheaton's 16-4 advantage in offensive rebounds helped it to an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points. Four Wheaton bench players accounted for 20 points and 19 rebounds in 62 minutes while two Eastern reserves were held scoreless and to one rebound in 15 minutes.
Behind Salato, sophomore Marissa Nudd (Cochester) totalled 14 points (ten in the second half) and five rebounds while Cassesse had seven points, five assists, three steals and three rebounds.
Five-foot-five inch sophomore Mary McClintock, making her first start in place of Fernandes, had a team-high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. McClintock, averaging just over three points a game, was 8-of-14 from the floor, often scoring off drives to the basket. Colbert, averaging 3.9 rebounds per game, grabbed a game-high 12.
Eastern plays the first of 12 straight Little East Conference games to end the regular season Tuesday at 6 p.m. against visiting Keene State College.