One Night After Exciting Win Over Host, Owls Fall Into Big First Half Hole in 84-63 Loss

SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Keene State College men's basketball team shot a season-low 33 percent from the field, including just 28.5 percent in the final 20 minutes, as their season ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament with an 84-63 loss to No. 17 State University of New York at Oswego Saturday night at Tarble Pavilion on the campus of Swarthmore College.

Records

• Keene State:  21-7
• No. 17 Oswego:  27-2

How It Happened
The Owls were bidding to reach the Sweet 16 for the fifth time since joining Division III prior to the 1997-1998 season and third time since 2016, but fell into a major first half deficit and never recovered.  Keene State led just once in the game – 3-0 on Mason Jean Baptiste's three 20 seconds in – and then misfired on five of their next six shots while being outscored 8-2.  Octavio Brito buried a three and James Anozie a layup in his return on back-to-back trips as KSC tied the game at 10, but Jamal Achille and Christian Simmons answered with treys as the Lakers quickly went back up six 52 seconds later.  In that stretch, the Owls committed five turnovers in less than three minutes (six in the game's opening nine minutes), setting the tone for the evening as KSC gave up 18 points off miscues and was minus-11 in that category.  A Jeff Hunter free throw at the 8:24 mark of the opening half still had the Owls within seven (21-14) despite a wobbly beginning, but Oswego State then embarked on a 15-4 run in four minutes to take a 36-18 lead and sent Keene State into the halftime break down 48-28, easily their largest deficit at the break this season.  The lead got as high as 23 before Brito made a three with 12 seconds left.  The Lakers, who made 26-of-62 (42 percent) from the floor in their nine-point (82-73) first round win over Hood College on Friday night, shot 58 percent (18-31) in the opening 20 minutes and made 6-of-9 from three-point range.  The Owls had committed 11 or fewer turnovers in three of their past four games, all wins including two against nationally-ranked foes in true road contests, had 12 alone in the first half (two more than they had made field goals).  Brito and Jean Baptiste combined for 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting (4-of-6 from three), but the rest of the team was held to eight points.

Keene State needed a major run after halftime – along the lines of what they did in a Little East Conference quarterfinal win over Rhode Island College when they trailed 40-28 after 20 minutes – but it never came.  In fact, their deficit grew to a game and season-high 25 a little over four minutes into the second half after Achille and Ahkee Anderson scored five points in a row.  Seven straight points for the Owls in 1:21 made it a 57-39 game with 12:53 left, and two free throws from Brito four minutes later had KSC within shouting distance at 66-51.  However, Anderson immediately made a layup on the other end as Keene State was unable to get the big number of stops needed to make any major dent in a double-digit deficit.  Consecutive triples by Ryan Donahue and Jean Baptiste on back-to-back trips shrunk the gap to 71-58 with 5:11 remaining, only to see Oswego's Devin Green go to the basket on the next possession to stop any Owl momentum.  After getting as close as 13, Keene State scored just five points – all on free throws – over the final five minutes.  They missed their final seven shots from the floor and had a pair of miscues.  KSC did clean up the turnover problem overall in the second half, committing just five (Oswego had eight and wound up having 16 for the game), but shot only 29 percent (10-35) from the field and 5-of-17 from the three-point line, a stark opposite to the 73 percent (16-22) they shot in the second half against host and 20th-ranked Swarthmore last night.  In fact, KSC had only four fewer made field goals in the final 20 minutes Friday than they did in the entire game tonight.  The Owls mashed the Lakers on the offensive glass 12-3 in the final 20 minutes, but it did not bear much fruit on the scoreboard.  Brito and Jean Baptiste poured in 23 combined in the second half, and in total had 43 of Keene State's 63 points, which was the Owls' fifth lowest total of the season.  They were held to 61 or fewer three times in four games in late January and early February, losing each time they were, but had steadily returned to their scoring ways recently until tonight, when they shot 14 percentage points below their season average.

Brito finished a shining Little East Conference Rookie of the Year campaign with a game-high 24 points (9-22 FG, 4-9 3-PT, 2-2 FT), six rebounds, three steals, and two assists to lead the Owls.  Jean Baptiste added 19 (6-12 FG, 4-7 3-PT, 3-5 FT), but was the only other KSC player in double-figures – a rarity this season.  Hunter grabbed 10 rebounds.

Oswego had four players in double-figures, paced by Achille's 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting (2-3 3-PT).  Anderson had 17 points (7-11 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 2-2 FT) and Simmons 16 (6-9 FG, 3-4 3-PT, 1-1 FT).  Green finished with 11, and the aforementioned four Lakers shot 25-of-40 (63 percent) combined.

Inside the Paint

• Anozie wraps up his impressive and impactful career with 1,344 points, good for 13th on Keene State's all-time scoring list.  He averaged 12.2 points per game and shot 58 percent from the floor, the highest in program history.
• The Owls were outscored 42-16 in the paint and had just four points in transition.  They also had nine assists, finishing below 10 for just the sixth time in 28 games (3-3 record).
• It was the first-ever matchup between the programs.  Keene State had not played any of the other three teams in the pod in their history.
• Brito, who shot 46 percent overall and 37 from three in his first year while averaging 12.6 points per game, would be on pace for approximately 1,456 career points depending on the number of games he and the Owls would play.  That figure would be a top seven mark on the Owls' scoring list.
• The season was filled with important milestones and moments:  Head coach Ryan Cain, now 118-64 after seven seasons at KSC, recorded his 100th career win at Middlebury College in November; the Owls had 13 double-digit wins including nine by 20 or more; while winning their fifth Little East Conference tournament championship in program history on a Nate Siow to Hunter alley-oop dunk, the Owls avenged earlier losses to Eastern Connecticut State University and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, beating them both on their home courts where they had been 28-1 on the season; KSC won 20 or more games for the fifth time since 2014-2015.

Up Next

• Keene State will prepare for the 2022-2023 season, which begins in November.  The Owls graduate Anozie, Justin Williams, and Lyndon Prayer off this year's team but otherwise expect to have everyone else back.
• Oswego plays No. 2 Marietta College (27-2) in the Sweet 16 on Friday, March 11.  The time and site of the game will be announced tomorrow (March 6).  The Lakers, who have made it this far for the third time in program history, lost 78-61 to the then-No. 22 Pioneers in the 2019 Sweet 16.