Hunter Produces Another Huge Double-Double, Named to All-Tournament Team as KSC Goes 2-0 at Great Lakes Invitational

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – Senior forward Jeff Hunter followed up one huge double-double with another, piling up 21 points and 16 rebounds, and was joined by four other Owls in double-figures as the Keene State College men's basketball team mashed No. 17 Marietta College 84-62 on Saturday night at Chadwick Court on the campus of Wabash College, finishing 2-0 at the 2022 Great Lakes Invitational.

Records

• Keene State:  4-0
• No. 17 Marietta:  2-2

Postgame Press Conference (Coach Cain, Octavio Brito)

How It Happened
After leading for the vast majority of the time in Friday's night's victory over Maryville College yet letting the Scots hang around until a late finishing push, KSC asserted themselves quickly less than 24 hours later and did not relent, comprehensively beating an opponent that is 185-38 over their last eight seasons, has won at least 21 games in their last seven full seasons, and reached the Final Four in a 29-3 campaign last year.  The Pioneers also were coming in off an 89-81 overtime win over host Wabash College in the final game of the invitational last night.

Spencer Aronson and Mason Jean Baptiste, two of the five Owls who scored in double-figures, connected on consecutive treys less than four minutes in to help KSC open an 11-4 advantage, and it is possible their only hiccup over the rest of the game came next, in which the Pioneers drew within two (15-13) at the 13:20 mark on a jumper by Addy Black.  A hiccup is all it was.  Barely over two minutes later, the lead was already back to nine, and it kept widening from there, with another three from Jean Baptiste making it 28-15 with 9:33 left in the opening half.  Five minutes later, KSC's lead was 20.  At halftime it was 21, 45-24.  Less than four minutes into the second half it was 28.  In fact, the Owls' lead was never lower than 20 at any point in the final 20 minutes, and reached as high as 33 (78-45) on a triple from Aronson with 6:14 to go.  It was a dominating first half for the Owls, who shot 50 percent (18-for-36), made 6-of-14 (43 percent) from three, and held Marietta to a 34 percent effort from the floor.  KSC had only four turnovers in the opening 20 minutes and a season-low nine in the game while handing the Pioneers their second most lopsided loss in their last eight seasons.

Hunter almost had a double-double in the first half alone, putting up 13 points and eight rebounds, four on the offensive end.  KSC outrebounded Marietta 26-15 in the opening 20 minutes and 53-36 in the game.  The Owl big man's effort came on 9-of-16 shooting and just one night after he had 30 points (13-19 FG), 18 rebounds (six offensive), four blocks, and three steals.

"Jeff Hunter had a lot to do with our struggles today," said Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal.  "He is a game-changer.  The presence he has on both sides of the floor down low is a big deal."

While Hunter may have been the star of the show, the supporting cast turned the game into a runaway - quickly - with Aronson finishing with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting (4-of-7 from three) and Jean Baptiste an efficient 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting and 3-for-4 from three-point range.  Octavio Brito (3-7 3-PT) had 11 points and six boards, while Jeric Cichon rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points (4-6 FG, 1-2 3-PT) and five rebounds.

Marietta was limited to just one double-figure scorer, as Danny Flood scored 11 points (4-6 FG, 3-4 3-PT) in nine second half minutes.  Addy Black and David Sanford each finished with nine.

With KSC up 11 (30-19) with 7:36 left in the opening half, a steal and bucket for Hunter kick-started what was a game-wrecking 9-0 run in less than three minutes, capped by a triple from Brito and jumper by Jean Baptiste on consecutive possessions.  The surge expanded to 15-3 on a jumper from Jeric Cichon at the 1:26 mark that made it 45-22.  Two more threes in a span of three Owl offensive trips early in the second half pushed the gap to 53-26, and Keene State rolled from there.  Marietta only got as close as 20 at 63-43 with 11 minutes remaining, and KSC responded right back by scoring the next 12 points in a 3:28 span, getting points from four different people in that stretch including another three from Aronson and a bucket and free throw from Cichon.

It was nothing new in the early-going of the season for the Owls, who have blitzed teams early and with force on more than one occasion, using speed and aggression to their advantage.  They jumped all over Westfield State University by 21 points in a hot-shooting first half in the season-opener and then three nights later led by as many as 35 while dominating Rutgers University-Newark behind a nuclear effort from Brito.  Last night, they "only" led by seven at the break before a decisive opening 20 minutes against Marietta today.

"I'm just really proud of the way our guys have gone about their business up to this point in the year, and this is a nice test for our program to play against some of the best," said Keene State head coach Ryan Cain.  "Really impressed with our response to that challenge."

When told of some of the statistical advantages in the game (five in double-figures, outrebounding Marietta by 17, 23 second change points) and subsequently asked if this was the best style of game for KSC at the press conference after the game, Brito smiled and said "the best is yet to come."

Inside the Paint

• KSC led for 73:52 of a possible 80 minutes in the two games at the Great Lakes Invitational.  Hunter – thanks to 51 points on 22-for-35 shooting, 34 rebounds (14 offensive), six blocks, four steals, and a plus-40 rating over the two days – was named to the All-Tournament team.  Also on the team were Trine University's Brent Cox, Max Chaplin from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Anthony Mazzeo from Baldwin Wallace University, Trevor Mantiel from Benedictine University, Sanford from Marietta, Myles Rasnick from Maryville College (Tenn.), and Ahmoni Jones from Wabash.
• The Owls are shooting 41 percent as a team from three-point range so far this season.
• Keene State has three wins over nationally-ranked opponents in their last seven games.  They first defeated then-No. 24 University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on their home floor (ending an 18-game winning streak in the process) in the Little East Conference championship last year and opened the NCAA tournament with a road win over 20th-ranked Swarthmore six days later.
• It was the first-ever meeting between the programs and the fourth consecutive game the Owls were playing an opponent for the first time.  They won the four contests by an average of 20.5 points per game.

Up Next

• KSC returns to New England and will travel to Springfield College (1-3) for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off on Tuesday, November 22.  The Owls dominated the Pride 93-57 in Keene last season.
• Marietta, whose other loss on the season before today was by eight to No. 15 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, is off until Wednesday, November 30 when they travel to Otterbein University (3-0) for an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup that starts at 7:00 p.m.