February 21, 2004 4:59 PM
Allison Coleman... assist record (Ken Sayers photo)
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004
BOSTON, Mass. -- Senior All-America Allison Coleman (JEWETT CITY) posted her 60th career double-double and became the program's all-time assist leader in the final regular-season game of her career to power the No. 19 Warriors to a 78-56 Little East Conference win over the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday at the Clark Athletic Center.
Eastern (21-4, 11-3 little east) defeated UMass Boston (7-16, 3-11 little east) for the 22nd straight time and finishes in second place in the final regular-season standings, three games behind the University of Southern Maine and four in front of Rhode Island College.
The No. 2 seed in the Little East Conference tournament, Eastern hosts No. 7 Plymouth State University (10-15) Tuesday in an opening-round game at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m. Eighth-seeded UMass visits No. 1 Southern Maine Tuesday. The highest remaining seed hosts the tournament's semifinals and final Feb. 27-28.
Coleman (16 points) shared game-high scoring honors with red-shirt freshman forward Sandy Mosley (GOSHEN), and tied her own program record with 14 assists on the way to breaking the program record for career assists. Coleman took over the program's all-time lead in assists with her tenth of the game, one ahead of former teammate Darcy Mund ('02). Coleman has a program-record 544 assists and is also the program leader in points (1,921) and steals (354) and is second with 1,091 rebounds -- 43 behind the all-time leader.
Six-foot-one inch freshman post player Katie Kline (NORTH BROOKFIELD, MA) led all players with ten rebounds, Coleman, senior post player Deanne Prior (SCITUATE, RI) and senior guard Kathleen Burdelski (NEWINGTON)adding eight each in leading the Warriors to a 53-31 advantage on the boards.
In addition to her rebounds, Prior added 11 points for Eastern.
Eastern, last year's NCAA Division III national finalist, is 3-1 against Plymouth in conference tournament play since 1988. The Warriors won the first three meetings before the Panthers recorded an 87-85 overtime upset win over Eastern in last year's semfinals at Southern Maine. Eastern has won the last seven regular-season meetings with Plymouth, this year's two wins coming by an average of 25.5 points. Plymouth has lost five straight, including Saturday's 66-61 home decision to Western Connecticut State University which relegated it to the No. 7 seed.
Eastern Conn. 78, Massachusetts Boston 56
EASTERN CONN. (21-4, 11-3): Deanne Prior 4-9 3-4 11; Allison Coleman 6-16 3-3 16; Sandy Mosley 7-13 0-1 16; Kathleen Burdelski 3-9 3-6 9; Jen Bergeron 1-3 4-4 6; Ashley Gomes 1-1 0-0 2; Lauren Proniewych 1-3 0-1 2; Lindsey Karsmarski 0-0 0-0 0; Sarah McDonald 3-7 2-4 8; Katie Kline 4-6 0-0 8; Erin Calkins 0-0 0-0 0; TOTAL: 30-68 15-23 78.
UMASS BOSTON (7-16, 3-11): Erin Towne 0-3 0-0 0; Agata Matel 4-12 2-4 10; Indya Mitchell 2-4 0-0 6; Elmina Darville 4-11 0-0 9; Kristen Reske 3-6 0-0 7; Lauren Bertolini 1-3 0-0 2; Ashley Greene 3-10 2-2 8; Aregash Gelaw 0-0 0-0 0; Amy Ouellette 0-0 0-2 0; Denise B. Ridge 3-7 1-1 7; Danielle Jones 2-3 1-3 5; Kimaada Haygood 1-1 0-0 2; TOTAL: 23-60 6-12 56.
Score at halftime: E, 37-34.
Three-point goals: E 3-11 (Mosley 2-4, Coleman 1-5, Burdelski 0-1, Proniewych 0-1), MB 4-15 (Mitchell 2-4, Darville 1-4, Reske 1-4, Towne 0-1, Ridge 0-1, Jones 0-1); Rebounds: E 53 (Kline 10, Prior 8, Coleman 8, Burdelski 8), MB 31 (Towne 5); Assists: E 22 (Coleman 14), MB 9 (Mitchell 3).