WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Despite a season-high 33 points from Charles Mitchell (Boston, Mass.), men's basketball suffered a tough Little East Conference loss as they fell to Eastern Connecticut State University by the final of 76-70 Saturday afternoon at Geissler Gymnasium.

THE BASICS
UMass Boston 70, Eastern Connecticut State 76
UMass Boston (3-3, 0-1 Little East Conference)
Eastern Connecticut State (5-3, 1-0 Little East Conference)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mitchell's night consisted of a 11-for-22 showing from the field, 6-for-12 from distance. He was also 5-for-7 at the line. Stephen DiGregorio (Marlborough, Mass.) and Emanuel Zayas (Hollywood, Fla.) both finished in double-figures, as they both made their LEC debuts.

After a Quinton Lott layup to start it off, UMass Boston would use an 13-3 run to take a six-point lead in the first six minutes led by six points from DiGregorio and five points from senior guard Charles Mitchell to take an eight-point lead in the early going.

DiGregorio and Charles Mitchell would combine for 19 points through the first 11 ½ minutes of play to help lead the Beacons to a 10-point lead, 25-15. UMass Boston would lead by as many as 12 after senior guard Charlie Mitchell's layup with 8:18 to go in the first half before the Warriors came alive.

Thomas Close kicked off the Warrior's 6-0 run with a jumper before another steal by Woods led to an and-one opportunity by Lee who converted the free throw and one of two free throws on a subsequent foul 32 seconds later to pull Eastern within three, 28-25. Lee would continue his strong end to the second half as he would score a total of eight consecutive points for the Warriors dating back to the and-one opportunity off the steal to make it a one-point game. Woods would send the game into a tie at 32 with his three-pointer, the first time in which the game was even since two all at the 19:12 mark of the first half.

Tied at 34 all heading into halftime, Eastern was led by Lee's 12 points, two assists, and two rebounds with Tyreice Woods close behind scoring nine points while helping out on the defensive end with four steals and a block.

After coming out of the gate quickly, the duo of DiGregorio and Charles Mitchell were held to just two points over the final 8 ½ minutes of the first half to head into the locker room with 21 of UMass Boston's 34 points.

Eastern would reclaim the lead for the first time since 2-0 with 19:39 left in the first half and never look back when a turnover by junior forward Malik Lorquet led to a three-pointer by Woods to put the Warriors ahead 37-34.This would be the beginning of a 9-0 run to start the second half for Eastern as Muckle and Lee each hit their three-point attempts to give the Warriors a nine-point lead and a 3-for-3 start to the half from long range. Charles Mitchell started a 5-0 run for the Beacons to help get them back to within five and a short while later a pair of free throws by DiGregorio and Charles Mitchell saw the duo come alive again to cut Eastern's lead down to two, 45-43.

The turning point of the half would come following a layup by Lee to push the lead back to four and towards the end of the shot clock on the subsequent possession a foul by Charlie Mitchell resulted in three free throws for Cory Muckle who hit all three shot attempts to put the Warriors ahead by seven.

The closest UMass Boston would get is within three with 10:53 remaining in regulation after a pair of free throws from first-year guard Emanuel Zayas. At that point, Eastern would begin a 12-0 run over the next five minutes to open a 15-point lead, their largest of the afternoon against the Beacons. It started with five straight points from Close who had eight points during the run while Lee and Muckle supplied the other four points as the Warriors went up 65-50.

UMass Boston would respond again with a 7-0 run as Charles Mitchell recorded four points and Zayas had three to bring Eastern's lead back to single digits with 3:51 left in regulation. Charles Mitchell would knock down a pair of three pointers around three baskets from the Warriors to help keep the deficit at eight with 1:24 remaining.

Moments later, Charles Mitchell would miss what would end up being two pivotal free throws for the Beacons after being fouled behind the three-point line before converting on two free throws a few seconds later that cut Eastern's lead down to five, 71-66.
In the closing 20 seconds, the Warriors would go 5-for-6 from the free throw line as Woods made 3-of-4 attempts and Close converted on both of his free throw attempts to help the Warriors stave off the late push from UMass Boston.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Mitchel's career-high is 34, which he recorded against Castleton University on January 15, 2020
• His six made 3-pointers ties a season-high for the senior guard
• The two teams both shot 43.3% from the field
• Mitchell passed Carl Joseph ('15) for seventh-place in program history for career points. Mitchell (1,239 points) in now 60 points behind Taharri Turner ('98) for sixth-place all-time. 
• The Warriors held a 37-31 advantage in rebounding
• ECSU leads the all-time series 58-22
• Saturday's loss ended a two-game win-streak for the Beacons over ECSU, which stood as the longest win-streak for UMB over ECSU since 2005-06.

WHO'S NEXT
The Beacons will host WestConn on Tuesday at 7 p.m. 

Information for this release provided by Eastern Connecticut State University Sports Information Department