Rhode Island College Repeats As Men's Basketball Champions - Mar 11, 2014

The Rhode Island college men's basketball team avenged two losses to regular-season champion Eastern Connecticut State University running off 11 straight points in the final eight minutes to secure a 70-61 victory in the championship game of the 2014 Little East Conference tournament Saturday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

The conference title is the sixth in eight title game appearances all coming in the last eight years for second-seeded Rhode Island (20-8), which is awarded a berth in the 2014 NCAA Division III tournament by defending its 2013 tournament championship. Top-seeded Eastern (22-6), which was the first perfect 14-0 team in conference play this year, had a seven-game winning streak ended and lost for only the second time at home this year in 13 outings (the previous loss had come to nationally-ranked Purchase College).

"It feels terrific," offered ninth-year RIC head coach Bob Walsh following the victory. "We've set a pretty good standard in our program for championships. We've played in this game for eight years in a row and we've won six of them. The kids were just phenomenal today. They played the game of their lives. Eastern was the best regular-season team in the history of our league nobody's ever been 16-0 coming into this game. I have so much respect for (Eastern head coach Bill Geitner ). For us to make them so uncomfortable with our defense the entire game is really, really impressive. I give our kids a ton of credit."

In meeting Eastern in the title game for the third time in four years, Rhode Island won for the second time over the Warriors. The Anchormen became the first second seed to defeat the No. 1 seed since 2009, when the Anchormen dropped a 62-53 decision to UMass Dartmouth.

Rhode Island's swarming defense took Eastern out of its game from the start forcing 17 turnovers -- and the Anchormen nailed down the victory by running off 11 straight points after the Warriors had pulled to within eight with 7:38 left to up the lead to 19, 61-42, with four minutes left.

While the Warriors were missing four shots and turning the ball over in that stretch, Rhode Island was converting five of seven tries from the floor to move out to the 19-point lead. Junior guard Eric Alleyne (5'10''-PG-91) three-pointer got things going, and freshman forward Terrance Tribble (6'3''-F), coming off the bench, hit an inside basket and a tip-in, and senior guard Tom DeCiantis (6'5''-G-92) and junior center Victor Smith (6'6''-C-89) contributed inside baskets.

Against the top-ranked defensive and rebounding margin team in the conference, Rhode Island shot 50.9 percent from the floor to offset 50 percent free throw shooting, and outrebounded the Warriors by five.

Eastern head coach Bill Geitner : "All the credit goes to Rhode Island. They came in today and played extremely hard. They were focused, and they did to us what we had done to them the first two games. We had outrebounded them by 15 and 17 in our two match-ups, and tonight, they outrebounded us, and statistically, we have been holding teams to 39 percent all year, and they come in today and shoot 51 percent. Our guys played hard and they battled. We just didn't play well. We made mistakes that led to some of their runs, and we never seemed to get into synch, but I don't think it was because of lack of effort."

Alleyne (7-of-10 from the floor) led a balanced aback with 19 points, Smith adding 17 points (8-of-11 from the floor) and seven rebounds. Tourney MVP Chris Burton (6'6''-F-93) a 6-foot-6 junior inch forward had 12 points, five rebounds and two blocks. Burton had 18 points and eight rebounds in Friday's semifinal win over UMass Dartmouth and 14 points and three blocks in Tuesday's first-round victory over the University of Southern Maine.

"It felt great to win on their court", noted Burton afterward. "It really hurt when they beat us here (in the final) my freshman year, so this one is really sweet.We played them strong here the first time (a 77-74 loss in the LEC opener Dec. 7), but great teams like they are found a way to win the game. We made a conscious effort today to play hard for 40 minutes."

Sophomore guard Trachone Preston (Enfield) topped the Warriors with 23 points (8-of-13 from the floor) and senior guard Mike Garrow (Terryville) 17 points and ten rebounds. Senior guard Brian Salzillo (North Haven), the LEC's leading three-point shooter, was hurried into 1-of-10 shooting from the floor and managed only three points.

Courtesy of LEC

LEC Tournament Final: Rhode Island College - Eastern Connecticut 70-61
LEC Tournament Semifinals:
Western Connecticut - Eastern Connecticut 75-88
UMass Dartmouth - Rhode Island College 69-82

All-LEC 1st Team 2014

Burton

Garrow

Joseph

Preston

Salzillo