WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The defending Little East Conference regular-season champion Eastern Connecticut State University women’s basketball team survived 32 turnovers to deny Rhode Island College in the Little East Conference opener for both teams and present 16th-year head coach Denise Bierly with her 300th career coaching victory.

Playing its first game in 11 days, Eastern (2-2, 1-0 little east) led by 12 points with four minutes left before Rhode Island (6-1, 0-1 little east) went on an 11-1 run to cut the gap to two, 55-53, on a steal and bucket by senior guard Denise Scott with 20 seconds left. Eastern freshman Tanisha Carter (East Hartford, Conn.) then made the potential game-saving play when she rebounded a missed Eastern free throw with 14 seconds left, and sank two free throws after being fouled on the put-back to give Eastern a critical 57-53 lead. After Scott sank two free throws with nine seconds left, Eastern junior guard Jessica Moriarty (East Haven, Conn.) answered with two of her own with seven seconds left to seal the Warriors’ 28th victory in 16 seasons under Bierly.

Bierly becomes the 12th active Division III coach in New England to achieve 300 victories. The Lafayette, Ohio native has lost only 121 games for a winning percentage of .713. Of the other 11 active coaches in New England with as many as 300 victories, only four have averaged more than Bierly’s 19.9 victories per season.

Bierly has collected all of her victories at Eastern, having been hired for her first head coaching assignment in 1994 after serving as an assistant coach at Capital University on a national championship team. She becomes the second Eastern women’s basketball coach to win 300 games, following former head coach Bob Miller, who won 332 games in 19 seasons before retiring in 1993.

Bierly’s first, 100th, 200th and 300th victories have all come at Geissler Gymnasium. She needed 155 games to record her 100th victory on Dec. 28, 2000 against Ramapo College, only 124 more tries to net No. 200 against Roger Williams University exactly four years later; and 142 more to post win No. 300 against Rhode IslandCollege. Her first victory came in her first game against AmherstCollege on Nov. 19, 1994 in the Eastern Tip-Off Tournament.

“The players are the ones who win games, the coaches just kind of guide them along,” said Bierly. “I think my relationship with my players has been very key to our success, because I think that they know that it’s not just about basketball. I’ve always tried to make clear to my players that we’re all in this together. I’m in this with them, and I hope that I’ve conveyed that message to them. If we win or we lose, it’s not one person’s win or loss. It’s all of ours. And I think a combination of all of that has helped the program remain successful. For me,” added Bierly, “ it’s just trying to continue a tradition that was set before I got here, and that has really been important to me. I think that we’ve represented what coach Miller did in his 19 years to the best of our ability.”

Saturday, Eastern and Rhode Island combined to convert 40 of 50 free throws. Scott was 7-for-8 for RIC and Carter, sophomore post player Piper Chapman (Portsmouth, R.I.) and junior guard Amanda Pierlioni (Plainville, Conn.) combined to shoot 16 of 18 from the stripe for Eastern.

Last year’s conference Defensive Player-of-the-Year, Moriarty shadowed sophomore Stephanie Coro, Rhode Island’s top threat, throughout most of the game. Cora was limited to 3-for-12 shooting from the floor and just three rebounds in 33 minutes and was forced into four turnovers.

In addition to her defense, Moriarty led the Warriors offensively with a season-high 18 points (8-for-12 FT) and also grabbed five rebounds. Chapman scored a career-high 14 points and grabbed six rebounds and Carter pulled down a collegiate-high 12 rebounds, missing by one point a double-double for the second time this year. The Warriors dominated the boards, 42-27.

Scott led Rhode Island with a game-high 20 points and sophomore forward Rachel Riley had 16 points and ten rebounds and Coro ten points. Two other RIC starters, however, managed only one total field goal, four points and one rebound.

Eastern hosts Westfield State College Tuesday at 7 p.m. before hosting No. 3 nationally-ranked Amherst College Thursday at 7 p.m.