News Release

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. — Junior guard Michael Stallings found senior forward Jeroy Smith under the basket for the game-winning layup with 2.0 seconds left that lifted the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team to a 68-67 victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Tuesday evening in Little East Conference play at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

After UMass Dartmouth (6-6, 1-3 little east) had taken its first lead of the second half, Eastern (4-7, 1-3 little east) called time out with 11.1 seconds left, then drove the length of the court for the winning basket. Smith in-bounded the ball to Stallings, who dribbled it the length of the floor. As he slashed down the right side of the lane with time winding down, Stallings unleashed a pass which found Smith alone on the left side of the basket for the game-winning layup. After UMass took two timeouts and inbounded the ball at half court with 1.5 seconds left, sophomore Paul Pawloski's three-point attempt from the top of the key skimmed harmlessly off the left side of the rim as time expired.

For the third straight home game against the Corsairs, Eastern watched UMass erase a late double-digit lead. The Warriors, who snapped an overall six-game losing streak with its first conference win, led by 12 points, 64-52 with four minutes left and by nine, 66-57 with just over three minutes left. UMass scored ten straight points, surging to a 67-66 lead when junior guard Will Mahoney found Britto for a driving basket off a set play with 40 seconds left. Over the next 30 seconds, UMass missed two one-and-one free throw opportunities and Eastern failed on one to set the stage for Smith's winning hoop.

With UMass trailing and pressing in the final minutes, Britto and senior Josh Adamec had both forced Eastern turnovers to spark the late comeback, but UMass missed the front end of those one-and-one free throw opportunies four seconds apart that spoiled its chance to put the game away. UMass was whistled for a violation on the second one-and-one miss with 11.1 seconds left that provided Eastern with its final possession.

Led by Stallings, Eastern's bench outscored UMass Dartmouth's bench by ten points. Stallings, who leads the team in scoring this year despite having started only one game, came off the bench to score a game-high 19 points. Senior forward Mike Bartunek (DURHAM) added nine points off the bench. Smith had 17 points (7-for-9 from the floor) and eight rebounds. Making his second straight start, first-year sophomore forward Leon Martin (WOODBURY) exceeded his previous six-game collegiate total of eight rebounds with a game-high 11 to go along with six points and two blocked shots.

UMass senior forward Chris Lapriore, a first-team all-conference pick last year, had 19 points (9-for-11 from the floor) and seven rebounds, Britto scoring 15 points and grabbing five rebounds and freshman guard Amilton Tavares adding ten points in nine minutes off the bench.

The Warriors outscored UMass by 12 points from three-point range. Stallings and Bartunek evenly split six of the team's seven three-pointers. Eastern hit half of its 14 attempts, UMass missing 13 of 16 tries from that range.

The last four meetings between these teams have been decided by a total of five points. Eastern downed the Corsairs by a total of three points in last year's two regular-season meetings but UMass bounced back to eliminate Eastern, 62-61 in the first round of last year's conference tournament at Geissler Gym. In each game last year, UMass erased double-digit Eastern leads, but the Warriors were able to emerge with wins twice.

Eastern hosts Endicott College Thursday at 6 p.m.