WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Castleton University women's basketball team had its four-game winning streak snapped Wednesday night at the hands of Eastern Connecticut State University as the Spartans fell on the road by a final score of 62-50 in Little East Conference play.

Castleton drops to 10-7 overall and 5-3 in conference play with the loss, while Eastern Connecticut improves to 14-3 on the year and holds a share of the No. 1 spot in the league with a 7-1 mark in LEC action. The Warriors outshot Castleton 39.7 percent (23-of-58) to 35.8 percent (19-of-53), but Castleton was on the mark from three-point range—making 45.0 percent (9-of-20). EastConn hit 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from distance. EastConn also hit 11-of-18 from the free throw line, making 9-of-10 in the second half after starting 2-of-8 as a team. Castleton was 3-for-4 from the charity stripe. The Warriors cleaned up on the glass, holding a 40-31 edge in rebounds which led to a 14-2 advantage in second-chance points.

Alexis Quenneville and Elise Magro had a team-high 14 points apiece, with Quenneville knocking down four threes and Magro hitting 5-of-16 off the bench. Kylie Wright had a team-high seven rebounds, while Katlyn Toomey, Emilee Bose, Brooke Raiche and Quenneville had four boards each. Bose added eight points, and Raiche had five assists on the day.

Lizzy Cretella had a game-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, with Mya Villard adding 15 points and nine boards for the Warriors. Anna Barry had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

The two sides battled evenly throughout the opening quarter, but EastConn held an advantage the entirety of the frame. The Warriors scored the first four points of the game before Bose dropped in a layup, but Eastern answered with a layup at the opposite end of the floor. Jillian Laughlin, making her first career start, buried a three for the Spartans to make it a 6-5 game. The Warriors extended the lead to four points once more after a three from Keckler later in the quarter, 11-7, but Castleton worked the lead back to just two points by the end of the frame when Bose buried a three for the final bucket of the quarter.

Magro opened the second quarter for Castleton with a three of her own to give Castleton its first lead of the game—17-16—but EastConn answered back with a 7-0 run to take a 23-17 edge. The Warriors extended the lead to seven points with 6:24 to play on a three by Serrantino, prompting Castleton to call timeout. The timeout proved valuable, as the Spartans rattled off 10 unanswered points out of the break to regain the lead, 29-26. The Warriors had the last basket of the half, as Lizzy Cretella knocked down a three to knot the game at 29-29 heading to the locker rooms.

The two sides traded blows out of the locker room for the first five-plus minutes of the third quarter, as Eastern took a 35-31 lead before Castleton went on an 8-2 run to take a 39-37 edge. The Warriors began to pull away, however, closing the third quarter with an 8-0 run of their own to take a 45-39 lead into the final frame.

Castleton did not back down in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, as Bose hit a three before Magro went coast-to-coast with a layup to make it a one-point game, 45-44, with 7:16 to play. After an EastConn timeout, the Warriors went on a 12-1 run to extend the lead to extend the lead to double digits for the first time, 57-45. Wright stopped the bleeding with a jumper and Quenneville buried a three for Castleton to draw the Spartans back within nine, 59-50, but Barry closed out the scoring on the night with an old-fashioned three-point play for the Warriors to give the game its final score, 62-50.

The Spartans return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. at home against UMass Dartmouth.