Sixth-Ranked Owls Return, Use Defense and Board Work to Grind Past Emerson 62-54
KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State College men's basketball team trailed at halftime for the first time this season (by one) and scored 30 fewer points than they averaged entering the game, but it worked all the same as the nationally No. 6-ranked Owls dominated the glass in the second half and were strong defensively for the entire 40 minutes in a 62-54 victory in their first action in 20 days to close out 2022 Friday evening at Spaulding Gymnasium.
Records
- No. 6 Keene State: 11-0
- Emerson: 5-6
How It Happened
For a KSC team that had scored at least 78 points in every game and 95 points or more five times, it was their defense that held the Lions to a season-low point total and their second half rebounding that ultimately proved to be the difference as they eventually shook free of an Emerson team that made the NCAA tournament as an at-large selection a year ago (reaching that stage for the second time in three seasons) and was picked third in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference this year. The Owls started slow, scoring three points over the first five-plus minutes of the contest to fall into an 8-3 hole, and the home team ultimately led for just 3:44 of the opening half. A Jeff Hunter dunk at the 11:42 mark gave KSC their first lead at 13-12, and a jumper from Octavio Brito nearly five minutes later made it 19-16, but Brendan McNamara answered with a bucket and free throw on the very next possession to kick off a 7-0 Lions spurt that put them back ahead by four (23-19) with 5:21 to go in the first half. The Owls quickly erased that deficit with five points in 18 seconds barely over a minute later after a Brito triple and Nate Siow steal and layup, but again – unlike previous games – KSC could not get rolling. They were on track to score just two points over the final four minutes of the half and fell into a 29-26 hole following Max Davis' layup with a tick less than a minute left, but Brito followed his three-point attempt for a putback bucket just ahead of the buzzer to keep the Owls within 29-28 despite a 32 percent (12-for-38) shooting effort in the opening 20 minutes. KSC turned the ball over only three times compared to seven for the Lions, but were also just 2-for-13 from three-point range and lost the board battle 28-20 despite nine from Hunter. Emerson 6-foot-10 center Jarred Houston had 12 rebounds in the first half and added four points as the Lions used him as a focal point for their offense, which the Owls limited to just 39 percent shooting, helping them remain within one despite a shaky beginning.
Although Keene State did not entirely come out of their shooting funk after the break – shooting 39 percent (11-for-28) – they more than made up for it defensively and especially on the glass, where they pummeled Emerson 24-13 while not allowing the Lions any offensive rebounds to turn what was a minus-eight rebounding gap into a plus-three by the end of the night. The Owls also stuffed the Lions offense, holding them to a paltry 33 percent effort in the final 20 minutes and Houston to just 3-of-8 shooting from the floor. Hunter finished with 16 boards to round out his eighth double-double, a top-ten mark in the country, while Jean Baptiste shattered his previous career-high by grabbing a key 13 rebounds, eight of which came in the second half. If that was not enough, the Lynn, Massachusetts product also helped finish off his team's victory with his offense, burying a huge triple with 50.3 seconds left that made it 56-49 and subsequently going 5-for-6 at the foul line to help provide KSC their sixth home win of the season in front of an energized post-holiday crowd that watched the Owls wrap up a successful 2022 calendar year.
Despite leading at the break, Emerson saw Brito and Hunter score inside on consecutive possessions early in the second half to put KSC up three, and the Lions actually led just one time (33-32) with 16:09 left over the final 20 minutes. Brito answered with two free throws for a one-point Owl edge, and he and Hunter tacked on two more buckets over the next two minutes to turn it into a 6-0 run and a 38-33 lead. However, anytime it seemed Keene State might embark on one of their game-breaking type surges, their lower-than-normal shooting percentage and Emerson's defense did not let that happen. The Owls turned a two-point (40-38) lead with 9:25 left into a 44-38 gap a minute later after layups from Hunter and Aronson and led by six twice more over the next four minutes after that – but a three-point play from Trevor Arico chipped the Lions' deficit back to one possession at 48-45 with 5:49 left. Hunter answered for a five-point lead, and after neither team scored for nearly three minutes, Brito canned a jumper at the 2:43 mark to make it 52-45…and yet Keene State still was not totally in the clear, as for straight points from Davis brought the visitors within one possession at 52-49 with two minutes left. The Owls made enough plays when they needed to, though, as after Siow went 1-of-2 at the line, Brito stole the ball from Davis – who made five threes against KSC a season ago. Siow, a point guard, then grabbed a huge loose ball offensive rebound in the corner and passed it to Aronson with about a minute to go, helping set up what would be Jean Baptiste's big three that put the Owls up seven.
Brito finished with 17 points (6-15 FG, 4-4 FT), five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block while Hunter's 16-point, 16-rebound double-double came on 8-of-20 shooting. He added three assists and four blocks. Jean Baptiste finished with 15 points (2-3 3-PT, 5-6 FT), eight of which came after halftime, to go along with the 13 boards.
Houston, an NABC Second Team All-American and NEWMAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2021-2022, paced Emerson with 14 points (7-16 FG), 20 rebounds, six blocks, and five assists. McNamara finished with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go along with two assists. Martin, who entered shooting 48 percent from the floor and 36 percent from three-point range while averaging 14.1 points per game, was limited to just eight points on 3-of-15 shooting as the Lions dropped another close contest. All six of their losses have come by seven points or fewer, two by two points, and one in overtime. In fact, since winning by 44 points on opening night, nine of their next 10 games have been decided by single-digits.
Inside the Paint
- Neither team ever held a double-figure lead, with Emerson's largest advantage of five coming five minutes into the game and KSC's biggest edge of nine coming in the waning seconds. In fact, the entirety of the first half was played in an eight-point window.
- Keene State held Emerson without a three on six attempts, helping wash out going just 3-of-18 themselves from long range (17 percent) after entering shooting over 39 percent from deep.
- It was just the second all-time meetings between the teams. The Lions took last year's meeting – a far different one – 88-82 in Boston. KSC led 45-40 at halftime and 60-54 with 12:15 to go but could not hold on as Emerson made 5-of-9 from three in the second half, three from Davis.
- 2022 was good to the Owls program, which captured their fifth Little East Conference tournament championship (and fourth since 2015) in February and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament while finishing 24-5 overall in the calendar year, winning 17 of their final 18 games and reaching their current program-best No. 6 national ranking.
Up Next
- Keene State begins the New Year with a road trip to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (3-7, 2-0 LEC), the site they won the OT classic on a Siow to Hunter alley-oop in the LEC championship last season, on Wednesday, January 4 at 6:00 p.m.
- Emerson hosts Babson College (7-3, 0-0 NEWMAC) on the same night at 5:00 p.m. in a league contest.
The Keene State College athletic department would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
For some New Year fun, check out when Jeff Hunter and Spencer Aronson recently visited the Owls Media Network studios to play a game of "What Do You Know," where they were given three random categories - of which they were unaware of what they would be - and had to work together to guess all of the answers. See how they did by clicking here!