NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. - After seeing a double-digit first half lead vanish, the Keene State College men's basketball team built another in the second half with a 17-2 run and went on to stave off UMass-Dartmouth 68-67 in the first game of an exceedingly rare basketball home-and-home weekend series Saturday at the Tripp Athletic Center.
Records
- Keene State: 4-0, 4-0 LEC
- UMass-Dartmouth: 4-1, 4-1 LEC
How It Happened
The Owls won their fourth consecutive game to start the season behind four double-digit scorers, including 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists from freshman point guard Nate Siow. Jeff Hunter put up another double-double, finishing with 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 15 rebounds. James Anozie went over 1,100 career points – now with 1,102 – following his 13-point (6-9 FG), eight rebound effort, and Nick Redden rounded out the double-figure scorers by scoring 12 on 4-of-7 shooting from long range. He also grabbed five rebounds for KSC, who held UMass-Dartmouth to by far their worst shooting performance of the season (32.5 percent). They had not shot under 40 percent until today. Despite the Owls finishing 10-16 a year ago, they did rank second in the conference and 31st nationally in field goal percentage defense (40.8). Marcus Azor was the only Corsair in double-figures, as he finished with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting, 12 rebounds, and seven assists.
Keene State scored the opening four points of the game before UMass-Dartmouth answered with 11 of the next 15 for an 11-8 edge about seven minutes in. What proved to be the home team's largest lead of the game lasted all of 30 seconds before Redden drained triples on consecutive possessions to put the Owls up 14-11, and the visitors never ended up trailing again. A 10-0 KSC burst in less than three minutes ballooned what was still a three-point edge (20-17) to 30-17 with 4:53 left in the opening half following a three by Mason Jean Baptiste. The Corsairs stayed in the game by immediately answering with nine straight and ultimately closed the half on a 16-5 sprint to make it 35-33 after Adam Seablom's transition layup in the final seconds.
UMass-Dartmouth was even (42-42) for the first time since it was 11-11 a little more than three minutes into the second half on a triple by Seablom, but then came another big Owl run. Jordan Santos connected from deep off a feed from Siow to make it 45-42 and KSC was off to the races again, outscoring the Corsairs 17-2 over a five minute span to build a game-high 59-44 lead with 11:56 left. Santos, Jean Baptiste, and Siow all connected from deep during the run and when the Owls were not doing that, they were getting to the basket, with Anozie and Hunter scoring six points on layups. Another triple by Redden with seven minutes remaining kept KSC's lead in double-digits (64-53), but the Owls then scored only two points over the next six minutes and needed their defense to hang on. UMass-Dartmouth got within 66-61 on Azor's three with 42 seconds left, but their comeback attempt was doomed by 28 percent shooting in the second half. Facing pressure, the Owls broke it with ease and got Anozie a wide open layup all alone under the basket with 34 seconds left to make it a seven-point game (68-61), more or less ending UMD's hope, as they did not get a three on their next trip until there were 12 seconds left.
Inside the Paint
- Anozie needs just 11 more points to pass Wally Markham '67 and move into 26th place on the Owls' all-time career scoring list. Accomplishing that would move him up four spots on the leaderboard from where he started the abbreviated season.
- The multiple-three game was the 12th for Redden, a sophomore, in this career. Keene State has prevailed in three of the last four games in which he has made more than one triple.
- KSC has won four of their past six games at the Tripp Athletic Center and 17 of 24 against the Corsairs overall.
Up Next
- The teams are back at it tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, in Keene for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. The game was rescheduled from January 30.