Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn.--The Western New England University men's basketball team did a solid job of protecting the ball in its season opener on Friday, but the Golden Bears couldn't overcome a poor shooting performance in a 62-34 loss at Eastern Connecticut in the first game of the 32nd annual Tip-Off Classic at Geissler Gymnasium. Western New England will play the Bowdoin/Clark loser at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Mike Garrow shot 6-of-10 from the field and scored a game-high 15 points for the host Warriors (1-0), who shot 46.9 percent from the field and made 10 3-pointers for 50 percent from the arc. Brian Salzillo added 12 points as the only other player--on both teams--in double figures.

Junior Kevin Wilkes came off the Golden Bears bench to lead the team with seven points and freshman reserve guard/forward Tizauni Boyles added six on a perfect 3-for-3 field goal shooting.

Western New England committed only 11 turnovers while forcing ECSU into making 19, which netted 11 steals.

But the Golden Bears dug themselves a huge deficit from which they couldn't recover, shooting 19 percent in the first half which the Warriors took full advantage to the tune of a 34-15 lead at the intermission. Western New England didn't record a basket for the last 5 minutes and 49 seconds of the first half.

Eastern Connecticut opened the second on an 11-4 run to put the game away. The Warriors never trailed in the game.

The Golden Bears also had difficulty on the glass as Eastern Connecticut out-rebounded WNE 46 to 27. Junior Ryan Mickiewicz and sophomore Musa Elsir led WNE with five rebounds apiece, while Tyler Hundley and Chris Robitaille both hauled down nine for Eastern Connecticut.

Western New England's bench outscored the Warriors' by a 23-16 count.