Plymouth (8-3, 3-0 little east), a conference playoff finalist last year, remains unbeaten in the conference with its sixth straight win overall. The Warriors (3-7, 0-3 little east) remain winless in the conference with their sixth straight loss overall.
Plymouth closed the first half with a 17-4 run and opened the second half with a 13-2 burst to turn a nine-point deficit with five minutes left in the first half into a 15-point lead with 16 minutes remaining in the game.
With first-year junior guard Michael Stallings scoring eight points (two three-pointers) to key a balanced early attack, the Warriors raced to a ten-point, 25-15 lead with eight minutes left in the first half. Leading by nine, 31-22 with just over five minutes left in the first half, the Warriors were outscored 12-2, going scoreless from the floor over a four-minute stretch as Plymouth surged to a four-point halftime lead. Pelotte, who scored the first five points of that 12-2 Plymouth run, opened the second half by canning four free throws and went on to score nine points in his team’s early 13-2 run that gave the Panthers a 15-point, 52-37 lead three minutes into the second half.
Pelotte reached his team-leading scoring average with a game-high 28 points, ten of the points coming on 12 free throws. Sophomore forward Andreas Pope had 19 points and a game-high ten rebounds.
With a team-high 18 points, Stallings recorded double figures in scoring for the seventh time in nine games this year. Senior forward Mike Bartunek came off the bench to score a carer-high 14 points and grab six rebounds. Freshman guard Shiwon Davis had 11 points and five assists and first-year sophomore guard Geoffrey Richardson had a career-high eight rebounds off the bench. In his first career start, first-year sophomore forward Leon Martin had four points and five rebounds in 18 minutes. He scored his points in the opening minutes to help Eastern rush to a 10-3 lead four minutes into play.
Eastern outscored Plymouth by six points from three-point range but needed 14 more attempts from that distance to do so.
Eastern hosts Massachusetts Dartmouth Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.