La Plume, PA – Keystone College's men's basketball team improved to 5-0 at home this season and snapped a four-game losing skid with a 97-81 victory over Cairn University in Colonial States Athletic Conference action on Wednesday night in the Gambal Athletic Center.  Duncan Lunsford (Marietta, GA/Sprayberry) scored a game-high 32 points after shooting 14-16 from the field while Jesse Longmire (Harlem, NY/John S. Burke Catholic) and Deion Monroe (Kingston, NY/Kingston ) came off the bench to score 13 points apiece as the Giants leveled their overall record at 6-6 while improving to 3-2 in conference play.   
 
The two teams traded the lead nine times over the first 6:15 of Wednesday night's contest.  Trailing 20-18 at the 14:01 mark, Longmire tied the game with a jumper that started a 15-3 run for Keystone that gave the hosts a 33-23 lead midway through the period.  The Giants would lead by as many as at points before Cairn used a 9-2 spurt to close their deficit to four points with 31 seconds left in the opening half.  DaVaughn Thomas (Port Arthur, TX/Silsbee) scored on a layup with seven seconds left in the period to give Keystone a 43-37 advantage at the break.
 
Lunsford led all players with 10 points in the first half while Thomas added nine points and six rebounds.  Monroe came off the bench to net eight points in the opening 20 minutes of play while Alex Smith (Floyd, NY/Holland Patent ) dished out four assists for Keystone, who shot 56.3 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range in the stanza.
 
Cairn (1-13, 1-7 CSAC) was paced by Darnell Clowney's nine first half points while Reuben Lacy contributed eight points and four boards for the Highlanders, who connected on 50 percent of the attempts from the floor in the opening period including a 28.6 effort from downtown and 7-8 half at the free throw line.
 
Cairn would battle the Giants closely over the first seven and a half minutes of the second half and narrowed their deficit to 56-53 with 12:32 remaining in regulation.  Miles Dargan (Orlando, FL/Wekiva) halted the Highlanders' momentum with a three-pointer on Keystone's next possession and the Giants would push their lead back to 10 points, 69-59, with 8:30 to play on a layup by Thomas.  After Cairn connected on a pair of free throws to cut their deficit to eight points, the Giants put the game out of reach with a 17-2 burst that gave the hosts an 84-63 lead with 5:13 left on the clock.  The Highlanders would come no closer than within 12 points in the closing minutes.
 
Lunsford's game-high 32 points matched a season-high as the junior forward missed just two of 16 field goal attempts, both of which were from beyond the arc.  Lunsford also added six rebounds in the win.  Monroe and Longmire evenly split 26 points apiece off the bench with Longmire adding four assists.  Thomas added 11 points and finished a rebound shy of a double-double after tying for a game-high with nine boards on the night.  Smith led all players with five assists in the contest.
 
For the game, Keystone shot 55.4 percent from the field including a 10-26 (38.5 percent) effort from three-point land.  The Giants, who held a 37-31 advantage in rebounds in the game, went 15-25 (60 percent) from the free throw line.
 
Lacy led Cairn with 22 points and nine rebounds in the loss while Clowney netted 17 points.  JD Zamroz contributed 14 points and Kyle Bonner pulled in eight boards for the Highlanders, who shot 71.7 percent from the floor on the evening, 29.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 80 percent from the charity stripe.
 
Keystone returns to action on Saturday afternoon when they host Rosemont College in a rematch of a CSAC game played last Wednesday.  After the Giants overcame a 22-point halftime deficit, the Ravens used a late surge to pull out a 76-71 victory at Rosemont.  Saturday's game will start at 3:00 p.m. in the Gambal Center in La Plume.