WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  The Keene State College men's basketball team scored the final six points of the game to finally pull away from Eastern Connecticut State University, 70-58, in a Little East Conference men's basketball game Tuesday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

In a game which featured five ties and six lead changes, Keene (14-0, 6-0 LEC) watched its 12-point lead with four minutes left cut to six twice in the final 1:21 before sinking four free throws with Eastern (6-9, 3-3 LEC) forced to foul en route to scoring the final six points of the game and equalling its largest lead of the game.

The win is only the fourth in the last 20 contests for Keene over Eastern at Geissler Gymnasium.

Playing without top scorer and leading free throw shooter in senior guard Jalen Williams (Simsbury), Eastern led by as many as five points seven minutes into the game before the Owls finally took the lead for good, 24-23, with six minutes left in the first half.

Trailing by five at halftime, Eastern got a driving layup from senior guard Tyreice Woods (Hartford) and inside hoop from senior forward Rakesh Tibby (East Hartford) to slice the deficit to one six minutes into the second half before Keene used a 13-2 run over five minutes to open up a 12-point, 52-40 lead with 8:36 left.

The conference leader in scoring, Keene was held 20 points below its season average but forced Eastern into a season-tying 21 turnovers, outscoring the Warriors by 24 points off miscues.

First-team All-LEC forward Jeff Hunter finished with 20 points, 20 rebounds and two blocked shots for Keene, with Octavio Brito, last year's LEC Rookie-of-the-Year, leading all players with 29 points on 10-of-24 shooting and 8-of-8 free throws.

Woods scored consistently throughout the game on drives to the basket and topped Eastern with 19 points and six assists, Tibby playing 29 minutes off the bench and scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Tibby, who hit 15 straight shots over three games last week, was 6-of-7 from the floor to raise his season percentage to 62.3, second only to Hunter in the LEC. First-year guard Dominick Dao (Terryville), last week's LEC Rookie-of-the-Week totalled 12 points and seven rebounds in 40 minutes.

A winner of four of its last six, Eastern visits the University of Southern Maine in a conference game Thursday at 3 p.m.