Owls Snap Skid Against Corsairs in Style, Will Go Dancing in March Madness For Seventh Time

Box Score

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – One year ago in a season unlike anyone has ever seen and in a gymnasium void of spectators, the Keene State College men's basketball team suffered a defeat in the Little East Conference championship game for which the taste would linger and, ideally, fuel them for the 2021-2022 campaign.  On Saturday afternoon at an energized Tripp Athletic Center, the Owls made good, used that fuel, and after two tough regular season losses to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, got the last laugh in the biggest of spots, upsetting the top seed and 24th-nationally ranked Corsairs 71-69 on a Nate Siow to Jeff Hunter alley-oop dunk with 3.2 seconds left in overtime to win their fifth conference championship.

Records

• Keene State:  20-6
• No. 24 UMass-Dartmouth:  24-4

Postgame Interviews with Coach Cain and James Anozie (click here)

How It Happened
After not leading at all in three of the last four games against the Corsairs, the Owls used a dominant inside game to roll out to a six-point halftime edge, led by as many as 12 early in the second half, and then had a response for most every push UMD had down the stretch.  The KSC answers came mostly from two dominant big men, as senior and tournament Most Outstanding Player James Anozie and junior Jeff Hunter each scored 19 points, combining to make 17-of-26 from the floor while grabbing 24 rebounds (nine offensive).  The duo scored 18 in the first half on 8-of-10 from the floor, were limited some in the second 20 minutes as they "cooled" to 4-of-11 shooting, but then saved their best for last, scoring every point in overtime while making all five of the shots they took.  After Marcus Azor put UMass-Dartmouth up 62-60 with two free throws on his team's first possession of the extra session, KSC started to take over, as Anozie scored six consecutive points – scoring on three trips down the court in a row – and the Owls ultimately opened up a 68-64 edge with an 8-2 burst in a 3:38 span, taking that lead on a bucket from Hunter with 49 seconds to go.  Jake Ashworth, quiet most of the day, drained a must-make triple to answer 13 seconds later to keep his team right in it when a miss might have been a huge blow to their hopes.  Anozie was shoved to the ground on the ensuing possession and made one of two free throws to make it 69-67, but Azor grabbed the rebound of the miss and sliced to the rim to tie the game once again with 11.1 on the clock.  Neither team called a timeout, so Octavio Brito inbounded to Mason Jean Baptiste, who rushed up the court before stopping near the three-point arc and passing to Nate Siow with seven seconds to go.  The shifty Owl point guard got around Azor and found Hunter for a huge alley-oop with three ticks left putting Keene State up 71-69, executing one of the biggest plays in recent program history, and KSC bothered Azor on his hurried triple in the final seconds to make sure it was well off the mark.  With that, the Owls washed away the sting of four consecutive losses to UMass-Dartmouth, beat them for the second time in a championship game, and ended their 18-game home winning streak dating back to KSC's win there in the regular season last year.

The Owls very nearly won in regulation, but Jean Baptiste's possible buzzer-beating trey spit out after being halfway down as the teams needed five more minutes to decide the championship after a defensive-minded second half where neither side shot higher than 32 percent from the field and combined for 12 blocked shots (UMD 7, KSC 5).  Both took extremely good care of the ball, combining to turn it over only seven times in the final 25 minutes (UMD 2, KSC 5), but the Owls likely missed a chance to win in regulation after going 4-for-13 at the foul line in the second half and 7-for-19 overall.  However, behind Anozie and Hunter, KSC was not going to be denied, racking up a 56-38 edge in paint points and dominating the glass 55-39 which included 21 offensive rebounds, eight more than UMass-Dartmouth.  It was the worst the Corsairs had been beaten on the boards all season, and the most offensive rebounds.

Keene State was in good shape and played from ahead most of the afternoon, widening a 37-31 halftime edge to a game-high 12 (43-31) with six consecutive points from three different players in less  than three minutes.  It was still an eight-point advantage after Jean Baptiste went one of two at the line with 14:38 left, but the Corsairs clawed back within one less than four minutes later and what followed was a pressure-laden final 10 minutes.  Siow canned a big answering triple on the next trip to make it 49-45, and layups by Hunter and Anozie shortly thereafter put KSC up 53-47 with 8:02 remaining, but the Owls managed just one point over the next four minutes and fell behind for the first time (56-54) all half at the four minute mark on Dhalyn Sanders-Dyer's layup.  It was still a two-point UMD lead with 2:48 to go, and the teams were forced into several empty possessions, but buckets from Jeric Cichon and Jean Baptiste, the last of which with 30 seconds were left, put KSC back in front 60-58.  Adam Seablom, who was a force all day with 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting, knotted the game once more before Jean Baptiste's teaser of a game-winner that refused to go down.
The Owls were helped tremendously by a very strong start, shooting 52 percent (17-for-33) in the opening half.  The teams traded leads early before UMD opened a five-point, 21-16 edge with 7:45 left until the break, but KSC ran off eight straight in 3:18 to take the lead and despite the Corsairs evening the game twice and eventually took a six-point edge – matching their biggest of the game – into the locker room, setting the stage for what transpired after.

Anozie finished with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 11 rebounds, and two blocks, picking a tremendous time for his third consecutive double-double.  Hunter, so reliable over the course of the season, also scored 19 (8-12 FG, 3-4 3-PT) and grabbed 13 rebounds.  Cichon chipped in nine points, 13 rebounds, and two assists off the bench as the Owls' LEC title joins those from 2004, 2015, 2016, and 2019.

Azor had a triple-double for UMass-Dartmouth, recording 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, but was limited to 6-of-20 from the floor.  Sean Leahy had 14 points, six rebounds, and six assists.

Inside the Paint

• The championship win is the first on an opponent's home court for Keene State.  Previously they had won two in Keene (2004, 2019) and two in Willimantic, Conn. against UMD and Rhode Island College (2015, 2016).
• It is the Owls' fifth 20-win season since 2014-2015, and the fourth under head coach Ryan Cain, who has won 20 games four times, three LEC tournament titles, and now reached the NCAA tournament four times in his seven seasons.
• A series the Owls had controlled to the tune of winning seven of eight and eight of 10 over a four-season span recently turned heavily in favor of UMD, but KSC is the only team to beat the Corsairs on their home floor in the last 23 games and is 33-28 against them overall all-time.
• KSC's last two wins, the romp over Eastern Connecticut State University on Thursday night and today's, came in the same buildings where they lost twice by a combined six points in the regular season.  Neither UMD or ECSU had lost to a league opponent at home this season, and were a combined 28-1 on their home floors before Keene State rolled into town this week.

Up Next

• It is selection show time for the Owls, who will find out who, where, and when they will play on Monday, February 28 at 12:30 p.m.  The show can be viewed at ncaa.com.  KSC has made two trips to the Elite 8 (2004, 2017) and two trips to the Sweet 16 (2007, 2016) in their tournament history.
• UMass-Dartmouth, 24-3 entering today's game, figures to have a very strong at-large case and would seem to be a likely selection by the national committee on Monday.  The Corsairs fell to 12-5 all-time in LEC title games, with two of the losses coming against the Owls.  They were aiming for back-to-back titles for the fourth time, with the previous three coming well before KSC joined the league.  The Cosairs' title last year that the Owls hoped would fuel them this season was their first since 2009.