KSC Bounces Back From Monday Night Loss With Ease

KEENE, N.H. – Eight different Owls made a three including three apiece from four different players as the nationally fourth-ranked Keene State College men's basketball team found their long-distance stroke again in a 102-49 demolition of Castleton University in Little East Conference action Wednesday night at Spaulding Gymnasium, bouncing back from a tough defeat Monday where they could not hold a late lead.

Records

• No. 4 Keene State:  16-1, 8-0 LEC
• Castleton:  3-12, 0-7 LEC

Postgame Interview (Coach Cain)
Postgame Interview (Liam Johnston)

How It Happened
A team that entered the night in search of their long-range shooting touch after connecting at just a 25 percent clip from deep in the past six games including 5-for-17 Monday night in a close game, KSC fell one short of tying their season-high by making 17 treys while dealing the Spartans their most lopsided loss in 19 years and 10th consecutive defeat this season after winning three of their first five games.

KSC was not threatened for long, with Jeff Hunter and Octavio Brito combining for 39 points on 14-for-24 shooting 14 rebounds, and six assists to pace four double-figure scorers.  The Owls finished with an extremely impressive 26-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio in the game and dominated Castleton in every facet, including a 35-2 margin in points off miscues, 18-2 in fast break points, 24-0 in second chance points, and 50-25 in bench points.  Spencer Aronson got his shooting stroke back, going 3-for-6 from long range to score 11 points while first year Keene product Liam Johnson added 11 of his own, making 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

The Owls sprinted out to a 9-4 lead in less than two minutes before the Spartans' only real challenge of the contest, a 10-4 answer of their own that gave the visitors a 14-13 edge at the 13:35 mark of the opening half.  That would be their only lead of the game.  Brito drained a three to put KSC back in front to stay, and a dunk by Hunter and steal and layup from Tahmeen Dupree within 28 seconds of each other punctuated a 7-0 push that made it 20-14.  Threes from John Walsh and Justin Schwarzbeck kept the margin from getting out of hand then, as Castleton drew within 24-22, but it got much worse rapidly for the visitors, as Mason Jean Baptiste and Aronson hit three triples in a minute and a half to make it 33-22 at the 7:36 mark.  The Owls steamrolled the Spartans from there, going up 19 two and a half minutes later on a transition dunk from Brito and one more three from Aronson.  A layup from Liam Johnston with 4:03 left in the half had KSC in front 48-24, culminating a 24-2 blitz in which the Owls made nine consecutive shots and all five threes they took.  Castleton took five shots total in that span, making one, and was forced into four turnovers.  The Owls led by as many as 26 in the opening 20 minutes and carried a 55-30 lead into the locker room, shooting 54 percent in the process and 8-of-20 from three-point range.  Castleton shot 50 percent themselves, but took 17 fewer shots as Keene State forced 12 turnovers and controlled the glass by a wide margin.

The lead only grew more…and more…and more in the second half, with a long-range shot from Jean Baptiste making it a 30-point gap (62-32) a little over two minutes in before Johnston made two more triples of his own that made it 82-41 at the 9:05 mark.  Getting their reserves ample playing time, LJ Hicks got in on the action with a trey less than three minutes later for an 87-45 lead, and then he scored five points in 29 seconds later to make it 99-49.  KSC surpassed the century mark with 1:25 to go when Gabe Bristow became the eighth Owl to make a three on the night, joining Brito (3), Aronson (3), Jean Baptiste (3), Johnston (3), Hicks (2), Max Bonney-Liles (1), and Mike Carothers (1).  The Owls finished 17-for-40 (43 percent) from deep on the night, matching their total from a 98-60 win over Rhode Island College on December 10 and one shy of the 18 they drained in a blowout of Plymouth State University three days earlier.  KSC had a whopping seven double-digit three-pointer games in their first 10, but had just one in their next six (and it came on 44 total attempts) before tonight's uprising.  In finding their shooting stroke, the Owls' 26 team assists were a season-best and their four turnovers were a season-low.  In other words, a winning formula that they will now hope to carry forward through the final eight games of the regular season and beyond.

Schwarzbeck made all five of his shots and both threes he took to score a team-best 15 points to pace Castleton.  Tray Wright (6-13 FG) added 13 points, but the Spartans have dropped their last two games at Spaulding Gymnasium by a combined 83 points.

Hunter finished with 20 points (6-7 FG, 8-9 FT), eight rebounds (five offensive), five assists, four blocks, and three steals for KSC.  Brito had 19 points (8-17 FG, 3-6 3-PT) and six boards.  Nate Siow finished with seven assists and no turnovers, and was one of three Owls with at least five assists, joining Hunter and Carothers.  Dupree had four helpers as KSC shared the ball effectively and also cashed in at a much-needed 15-for-17 rate at the charity stripe.

Inside the Paint

• Siow has a thoroughly impressive 65-to-23 assist-to-turnover ratio this season, including 17-to-1 over the past three games.
• The Owls have won all 11 all-time meetings between the two schools, eight by double-digits.
• Hunter has 53 blocks this season, including recording four six times in the past eight games.  He is also shooting 62.5 percent from the floor.  The Owl big man needs 89 more points to crack into the top 15 in the KSC men's basketball program's career scoring list.  Brito currently sits at 721 career points in just his sophomore campaign (44 games/39 starts).
• 15 different Owls registered a point in the game.
• KSC maintains a one-game lead in the loss column over Western Connecticut State University for first place in the Little East standings, currently holding the tiebreaker.  The Wolves were down 20 points in the first half at Eastern Connecticut State University, but crushed the Warriors in the paint all night to eventually post a 98-91 road win in overtime behind a balanced attack that outdueled 37 points from ECSU's Jalen Williams.  Tonight concluded the first cycle around the league for all of the head-to-head matchups.

Up Next

• The Owls wrap up a three-game homestand with a Saturday afternoon home game (January 21) against the University of Southern Maine (10-7, 4-4 LEC) at 3:00 p.m.  KSC pasted the Huskies 83-70, leading by as many as 22, in Gorham in December.  USM took a healthy lead over the University of Massachusetts-Boston in both halves at home tonight, but wound up losing 66-60.
• Castleton visits Rhode Island College (5-11, 3-5 LEC) on Saturday at the same time.  The Anchormen are 1-5 in their last six games.