PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Third-seeded Keene State College and fifth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University won their respective First Round games on the opening night of competition in the 2026 Little East Conference (LEC) Men's Basketball Championship Tournament Wednesday night. The Warriors will next travel to top-seeded Western Connecticut State University for Friday's semifinal round action, while the Owls head to second-seeded UMass Boston. 

No. 3 Keene State 101, No. 6 Rhode Island College 81
By Keene State Athletics

Jordan Cooper matched his Keene State career-high with 38 points including a show-stopping dunk in the second half and rookie Allyn Wright continued his impressive late-season burst with 20 big points as the Owl men's basketball team ran their Little East Conference tournament win streak to 10 games, running away from Rhode Island College 101-81 in the quarterfinal round at Spaulding Gymnasium Wednesday night.

The Owls (16-10) led 47-44 at halftime and then sizzled in the second half, shooting 55 percent including making 12 of 15 shots in an eye-catching 30-11 blitz over a 7:22 span that began with just over nine minutes remaining as KSC turned a three-point game into a 101-79 runaway.  Cooper and Wright had 11 points apiece during the surge – each matching RIC's total in that span as the Owls held the Anchormen (11-15) to just 3-of-9 from the floor.  Cooper blew the roof off Spaulding Gymnasium on several occasions, and one could make a case his explosive dunk with 13:13 left and KSC down three was the catalyst that propelled the Owls to their 16th win over the past 23 games and their eighth straight at Spaulding Gymnasium.  The Bridgewater College (Va.) transfer who played two years for now-KSC head coach Steve Enright there was also the one to begin the game-breaking run with two triples in 30 seconds that ballooned KSC's lead to 79-70 with 7:58 left.  Wright, who had a stellar game in his own right, drove to the hoop for a layup with 5:49 to go to push KSC's lead to 12 and then might have been the finisher, knifing to the cup again a little over a minute later for a 14-point lead and draining a triple with 3:59 left to make it 92-75.

It was a rare instance in which two teams played each other in consecutive games at the same venue, with KSC pounding RIC 90-69 on Senior Day Saturday to help push the Anchormen to the sixth seed.  The Owls led 44-30 at the break and were never seriously threatened in the second half, making 12 threes and shooting 50 percent after the break to roll to a win, leading by as many as 21.  RIC hung around far longer tonight and even led in the second half by as many as five but lost their 14th straight at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Saturday proved to be the Leo Chaikin show, as the reigning LEC Player of the Week made nine of 11 from the field in his 22-point effort to go along with 10 boards.  Mitch Shettles also had a double-double four days ago.

Call tonight the Jordan Cooper and Allyn Wright show, with the duo combining for 58 points on 21-for-38 shooting from the field.  But the always-steady Chaikin continued his stellar play with 19 points on ho-hum 8-of-10 from the floor to go along with eight rebounds and three assists as KSC put together their second-best shooting effort from the floor on the season, finishing 38-for-74 (51.4 percent).  The Owls also made double-digit threes, finishing 12-for-26 as they made at least 10 for the sixth time in the last eight games after five straight under that mark.  KSC is 10-2 when making double-digit threes this season.

In some ways tonight ended up like the Saturday game in the end, but not to start, as the Anchormen took a six-point lead (14-8) less than five minutes in on Xavier Mendez's three and led by eight two minutes later.  After leading 5-4, KSC's next lead did not come until Shettles buried a three to make it 30-29 with 6:53 to go in the opening half.  It seemed the Owls were going to run away then, rattling off a 14-0 run to flip a 33-30 deficit into a 44-33 lead with 2:58 to go, but RIC came up with a critical responding surge and outscored the Owls 11-3 over the rest of the half to keep it a game at the break.

Xavier Mendez poured in 25 points for RIC on 8-of-15 shooting while Loudon Chupas had 19 points (6-12 FG) and 10 boards as the visitors again committed only nine turnovers and shot 45.5 percent from the field.  But it was too much Cooper, too much Wright, and too much of KSC on the glass (44-30 with 14 offensive rebounds) to overcome.  The Owls also had 18 assists on 38 made baskets, with Wright and Ryan Blakey each dishing out five assists.  Chaikin and Denis Wainaina each grabbed eight boards.  Wainaina, the national leader in blocks, added four more to his total.

Cooper finished 14-for-23 from the field, 5-of-8 from three, and 5-of-6 at the foul line in his masterpiece of a performance.  In Wright's, he was 7-for-15 from the field, 3-of-4 from three, and 3-of-4 at the foul line while dishing out five assists and not committing a turnover.  In his last three games, the freshman Connecticut native has 35 points on 12-for-23 shooting and 14 assists to just three turnovers.

No. 5 Eastern Connecticut 93, No. 4 Southern Maine 83
By Eastern Connecticut Athletics

Senior guard Javontae Jones (Lumberton, NJ) was a non-factor when the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team split two regular-season games this year with the University of Southern Maine.
 
But after an uneventful two minutes in the first half of Wednesday's Little East Conference first-round game against the fourth-seeded Huskies, the 6-foot-2 inch guard took center stage, and in large part because of that, the fifth-seeded Warriors emerged with an LEC tournament win on their opponents' home court for the first time in 26 years, 93-83, at the Warren Hill Gymnasium.
 
Jones scored all of his career-high 17 points in the second half, with 13 of the 17 -- and 13 of the team's final 20 -- coming in the final 4:30 on two field goals and eight free throws  as the Warriors (17-9) handed the Huskies (16-10) only their second home loss in 12 outings this year. USM had pinned an 81-70 loss on visiting Eastern five weeks ago before the Warriors gained a split with an 88-85 home victory during a critical four-game win streak that started the month of February.
 
With the first-round win, Eastern improved to 6-1 in its last seven games and moved into the tournament semifinals against top-seeded Western Connecticut State University (19-6) Friday at 6 p.m. at Feldman Arena (WestConn drew a first-round bye). Eastern opened its LEC season with a 78-73 win at WestConn back on Dec. 3.
 
Since losing four of its first six, USM had won 14 of 19 entering the tournament, including three straight in conference play.
 
After junior guard Ray Carter's (Springfield, MA) bucket in the paint gave Eastern a 14-point, 80-66 lead with 3:20 left, Eastern scored its next 11 points from the foul line until junior forward Drew Soltis (Bridgeport) beat the final horn with an uncontested dunk.
 
After Carter's basket with 3:20 left, Jones missed the front end of two one-and-ones 29 seconds apart before  connecting on eight of ten from the stripe with Eastern in the two-shot bonus, to keep the Huskies at bay.
 
It marked only the second double-digit scoring game in the two-year, 37-game career of Jones, who has come off the bench in each game. Jones spelled starting point guard Michael Carothers (Queens, NY) midway through the second half with Eastern leading by four, and did not come off the floor over the final 9:46.
 
Jones was inserted into the game while USM was tearing off a nine-point scoring run that whittled an 11-point Eastern lead to two, 57-55, with nine minutes left. With the Warriors leading by four, junior guard Pedro Perry (New London) and Jones sandwiched back-to-back three-point field goals around a pair of USM free throws that gave the Warriors some breathing room at 67-59, with seven minutes left. Soon after, Jones hit the back end of a two-shot foul, then set up Perry's second three-pointer of the game that restored Eastern's lead to double digits, 71-61, with five minutes left.
 
Jones' second three-pointer of the half from the corner and his layup from the left side on a cut through the lane  set the stage for his free-throw barrage over the final two minutes that never led USM get closer than eight points (with six seconds left).
 
Limited to six points in 17 first-half minutes, Soltis finished with a game-high 22 points to lead five double-digit scorers, and team-high nine rebounds. He was 6-of-8 from the floor in the second half.
 
Jones was 9-of-14 from the foul line en route to his 17 points, with Carter adding 12 points. Senior guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) had 12 points and junior forward Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) came off the bench for 11 points and eight rebounds. Dao and Sanchez each had nine of their points in the first half to help the Warriors to a slim three-point halftime lead.
 
Senior forward Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford), along with Dao and Soltis, carried four fouls into the late stages of the game. Hamblin had eight points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 4:57 left and the Warriors up by ten.
 
The conference leaders in  field goal percentage and three-point percentage, the Huskies were 8-of-19 from distance but only managed  37.7 percent overall from the floor.
 
Senior guard Thomas Whalen – the third-ranked scorer in the Little East  -- led four Huskies in double figures, with 18 points, but only five came in a first half on 1-of-7 shooting when the Warriors set the tempo by leading by as many as ten. Six-foot-six inch freshman Gabe Lash had 15 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with his team down by 11 with 1:31 left.
 
Until Wednesday, Eastern had last won an LEC tournament game on its opponents' home court exactly 26 years ago to the day when the Warriors eliminated top-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 68-53, before winning  the second of their five LEC tournament titles the next day with a 73-66 win over Southern Maine.