Men's Basketball Falls In ECAC Semi-finals

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. - The top two seeds in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) men's basketball tournament built double-digit leads, then had to hold on to gain four-point semifinal wins Saturday and advance to Sunday's championship game at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium on the Eastern Connecticut State University campus.

Host and top-ranked Eastern (20-9) led by as many as 15 points seven minutes into the second half and held on against fourth-seeded Becker College (19-10) in Saturday's first semifinal. In the second semifinal, second-seeded Elms College (23-6) raced to an 18-point lead with four minutes left in the first half and had to survive a second-half rush by sixth-seeded Husson University (16-12) that narrowed the margin to two late in the game in a 68-64 triumph.

Both finalists will be in search of their first ECAC tournament titles Sunday in their first appearances in the title game. Prior to this year, Eastern had advanced as far as the tournament semifinals only once in four previous appearances in the tournament. The ECAC bid this season was the first one for Elms, which had earned berths in the NCAA tournament each of the previous five seasons. The Blazers are under the direction of ninth-year head coach Ed Silva, a former Little East Conference All-Star and assistant coach at Eastern in the 1990s. In the only meeting between the programs, Elms  recorded a 92-74 victory over the Warriors in the championship game of the Eastern Tip-Off Tournament in 2006.

Eastern Conn. 75, Becker College 71

Eastern never trailed in the second half and led by 15 seven minutes into the stanza, but utilizing its press, Becker pulled to within three points with six minutes left and within one when junior DJ Exum (New London) and junior Rajai Leggett (New Haven) each stole the ball and scored on layups on consecutive plays to make it 65-64 with three minutes left. Junior Broderick Sawyer (Norawlk) then found  sophomore Jamie Kohn (Columbia) open underneath for an uncontested basket and Sawyer then sank two free throws to push the lead back to five with two minutes left.

By grabbing twice as many offensive rebounds, Becker outscored Eastern by ten on second-chance opportunitees and had a +11 advantage on points off turnovers (forcing 27 and commiting only nine) but was 17-for-33 from the foul line and missed all nine of its three-pointers.

Senior guard Nick Nedwick (Irvington, NY) and Kohn played all but six minutes for Eastern and combined for 45 points (17-for-27 from the floor), 12 rebounds, five assists and four steals. Nedwick netted a season-high played all 40 minutes for Eastern, and was one of two Eastern players with at least 20 points. Nedwick had his second-high career point total with a game-high 25 points in 40 minutes to go along with four steals, four rebounds and two steals; Kohn had 20 points (9-for-12 from the floor) with a team-high eight rebounds and three assists.

Becker sophomore Terrance Favors (Boston) ignited Becker's second-half rally by scoring 13 of his team-high 17 points after the break. Favors finished with a game-high ten rebounds.

The Warriors survived despite having two players foul out and playing with a sub-par Edwin Ortiz (Hartford). Ortiz, who shares the team scoring lead with Nedwick, was held scoreless from the floor and finished with two points while battling a case of the flu. He played only 22 minutes.

Now 12-3 at home this year, Eastern reached the 20-win plateau for only the third time in the program's 68-year history. A win in the final will equal the program record, set in 196970 and equaled in 1992/93