OSWEGO, N.Y.--The 2015-16 season drew to a close for the Keene State College men's basketball team, who fell 74-62 to No. 4 Christopher Newport University in the round of 16 of the 2016 NCAA Division III Championship.

Records

• Keene State: 20-11
• Christopher Newport: 29-1

Up Next

• Keene State, which reached the round of 16 for the third time, sees its season end with the 11th 20 win season in school history.
• Christopher Newport advances to the national quarterfinals tomorrow night, where the Captains will play either Oswego State or Wooster.

Tale of the Tape

• The Owls got a team high 18 points from Ty Nichols, while Matt Ozzella had 15 and Nate Howard had 12.
• Howard sank a free throw with 11:25 remaing to reach the 1,000 point mark, the 34th player to do so in school history.   Howard finishes his career with 1,002 points.   
• The KSC big man also had four blocked shots, setting a new single season mark with 77.  Marcus Debro '83 had 74 in the 1982-83 season.   
• Christopher Newport's Marcus Carter led all players with 22 points, shooting 7-for-8 from the field and making all four of his three point shots and pulling down 12 rebounds.  Tim Daly added 17 points off the bench for the Captains.
• The loss was the final game in the careers of Howard, Tre' Tipton, and Nate Stitchell.

First Half Highlights

• Keene State took an early 8-3 lead as Ozzella swished a three pointer and Howard scored inside.  
• Christopher Newport responded with the next seven points, including a three and a putback from Carter.  
• Nate Stitchell's layup gave KSC a 13-10 lead, but Carter made another three with 9:09 left to tie the game, and it could have been worse; on the next possession, KSC fouled Carter on another three point attempt, but the freshman could only make one of the foul shots.
• Ozzella's free throw with 2:34 left tied the score at 25, but CNU scored six of the final eight points of the half, leading 33-27 on Daly's hoop at the horn. 

Second Half Highlights

• The Captains picked up where they left off in the second half, opening on a 10-5 run capped by Carter's layup for a 43-32 lead with 16:17 left.
• Nichols' layup cut the lead to 45-42 with 13:12 to go, only to see Carter and Justin Hampton connect on back-to-back threes to stretch the lead back to nine.
• KSC would not go away, going on a 10-1 run over the next five minutes, powered by Howard's slam dunk, tying the game at 52.  
• Out of the 8-minute media timeout, the Captains scored seven of the next nine points and Keene State could not get closer than five the rest of the way.  Daly converted a three point play with 2:50 left that put CNU up 66-56.