Panthers come up short against Warriors

               PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Junior Nick Nedwick (Irvington, N.Y.) scored a game-high 25 points Saturday afternoon as Eastern Connecticut State University held off Plymouth State University, 63-56, in Little East Conference men's basketball action at Foley Gymnasium.

              Nedwick converted 10-of-17 shots from the field while also collecting three assists and three steals.  He was joined in the double-figure scoring department by junior Jamie Kohn (Columbia, Conn.), who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.  The Warriors improve to 13-5 overall and 6-3 in the Little East, tied for second place with Keene State College and Rhode Island College, all two games back of league-leading Western Connecticut.

              Plymouth State got a balanced scoring attack from seniors Tom Dowd (Portsmouth, N.H.), Ryan Lambert (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton) and Matt Feehan (Nashua, N.H.), who finished with 15, 13 and 12 points, respectively.  The Panthers, who had won three of their previous four, drop to 9-10 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

              The teams played a tight game most of the first half, see-sawing back and forth.  It was tied 12-12 at the midway point after PSU senior Jesse Sabolis (Stoughton, Mass.) drained a three-pointer.  Eastern rattled off 11 unanswered points late in the half to take a 10-point advantage.  Sophomore Chris Robitaille (Canton, Conn.) had six points for Eastern in the spurt, and the Warriors took that 10-point margin into the locker room at the intermission.

              Plymouth State chipped away at the deficit early in the second half, and actually came back to take the lead, 43-41, on a Lambert three-pointer with 10:27 to play.  That would end up as the last Panther lead, as Eastern put together another unanswered run, this time 11 points, to regain the double-digit advantage, 53-43, with four minutes to play.  PSU got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

              Eastern Conn. plays a non-conference game Tuesday at home against Wesleyan University, while PSU is idle until hosting league-leading Western Connecticut next Saturday at Foley Gym. 

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