After Opening 22-2 Lead in First Meeting, KSC Runs to 17-2 Edge This Time and Leads Throughout in 90-68 Win

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Senior forward Jeff Hunter scored 17 points and made seven of his eight shots from the field while junior guard Nate Siow added 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting as the nationally No. 6 ranked Keene State College men's basketball team took a 17-2 lead in less than seven minutes and went on to pummel Little East Conference opponent Rhode Island College 90-68 Saturday afternoon at The Murray Center.

Records

• No. 6 Keene State:  19-1, 11-0 LEC
• Rhode Island College:  6-13, 4-7 LEC

How It Happened
The separation perhaps did not happen quite as rapidly as it did the first time the two teams met, when KSC led 22-2 at the 14:20 mark of the first half and 39-11 at the less than six minutes later, but nonetheless still happened quite quickly as the Owls never trailed in either matchup in the season series and outscored RIC 39-4 over the opening 12:08 on aggregate of both games.  Today, an early three-point play from Siow at the 16:56 mark had KSC out in front 9-2 and, less than three minutes later, a transition dunk from Rhode Island native Octavio Brito made it an 11-point lead (13-2).  Mason Jean Baptiste followed with four-point play after he was fouled by Nathaniel Maldonado while making a three to make it 17-2 with 13:32 left in the opening half, and RIC was already in a deep hole.  Unlike the first time around, the Anchormen, playing on their home floor, engineered a brief 8-0 burst of their own to get within six a little over two minutes later and forced a KSC timeout.  However, Spencer Aronson and Siow put up seven points in 14 seconds to make it 24-11 with 11:01 left, and the Owl lead was never below double-figures again.  It was 30-12 following a Hunter layup a little over 10 minutes in, and reached 20 (34-14) on Jean Baptiste's steal and basket at the 8:09 mark.  A Hunter flush made it 36-15 a short time later, and Keene State led by as many as 21 three more times before carrying a 49-30 lead to the locker room.  Siow had 11 points and made four of five shots while Jean Baptiste and Jeric Cichon had eight, but the Owls shot only 5-of-20 (25 percent) from long distance (and have shot less than 30 percent from three in six of their last eight games) in the opening 20 minutes while committing seven turnovers.

"Good start on the road against a young and talented RIC team, but a little inconsistent at times in both halves," said KSC head coach Ryan Cain.  "We need to play with an edge and have a sense of urgency to get better each and every day at practice and games with the goal of playing our best basketball at the end of the season."

The teams exchanged baskets quite a bit in the second half, but already up 19, that worked just fine for the Owls to lock up their 11th conference victory and eighth consecutive in the head-to-head series against the Anchormen.  Ousmane Kourouma got the second half scoring started with a putback basket – one of 17 offensive rebounds KSC allowed in the game – but Jean Baptiste answered with a trey 10 seconds later, and this is the story of most of the final 20 minutes.  Brito, who had only four points in the first half, made it 57-38 with a triple of his own with 17:11 left, but Noah Waters made a three off another offensive board on the other side and a jumper from Kourouma made it 57-43 with 15:42 left.  Rhode Island College never got closer than that margin, and in this particular case gave up seven consecutive points after as KSC rebuilt their lead to 64-43 with a 7-0 spurt that took 1:57.  Maldonado made a triple at the 11:45 mark to make it a 68-53 game and the Owls then misfired on one of their own, but Mike Carothers picked Anthony Rivera and set up Brito for a layup, and then a Hunter steal eventually led to a Brito second-chance hoop that made it 72-53 with 10:54 to go.  After scoring 23 points in the opening 8:15 of the second half, KSC limited RIC to just 15 over the final 11:44.  The Owls had eight steals in the final 20 minutes and limited the Anchormen, who actually shot 6-for-11 (55 percent) from distance in the half to just seven two-point field goals on 29 attempts.

Rhode Island College had no answers for the Owls in transition, and that again showed itself as the period wore on.  Siow stole the ball from Noah Waters and found Tahmeen Dupree for a layup on the other end that made it 75-55 at the 8:37 mark, and then he scored himself on Keene State's next offensive trip.  A layup and dunk from Hunter a minute later pushed the advantage to 81-60, and a dunk from Brito with 5:32 left helped provide the exclamation point and a game-high 24 point advantage.  The former Lincoln High School product had 17 points on 6-for-14 shooting in his home state, ultimately scoring 13 (4-6 FG, 4-6 FT) in the second half.  He added six rebounds and four assists.

Hunter finished with another double-double, this time with 17 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.  Jean Baptiste (6-13 FG, 2-8 3-PT) added 15 points, four rebounds, and four steals, while Siow (5-8 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 2-3 FT) had 13 points, four boards, four assists (to just one turnover), and three steals.  The Owls finished with 17 steals as a team, their second-highest team total of the season.  KSC also shot 27-for-44 (61 percent) from inside the arc, helping nullify a 7-for-27 performance from three (26 percent) and 15-for-26 at the free throw line (58 percent).

Kourouma posted his own double-double for Rhode Island College, posting 17 points and 15 rebounds (eight offensive).  Anthony Rivera (6-16 FG), Kalu Uga (4-11 FG, 2-4 3-PT, 2-3 FT), and Maldonado (3-12 FG) all scored 12, but the Anchormen turned the ball over 21 times and were outscored 50-30 in the paint, 29-12 off turnovers, and 38-12 in transition.

The next time the Owls take the court, the calendar will have turned to February and there will be five regular season games left including a significant contest at second-place Western Connecticut State University a week from today.

"It's not about the result or the score, it is about how we consistently play throughout games and there is still a lot more we can consistently do to get our team to take the next big step as we move forward," said Cain.

Inside the Paint

• Siow's eye-popping numbers as KSC's floor general continue.  In his last six games, he has 25 assists and four turnovers and has scored in double-figures three times (equaling the number of times he had scored that many in the season's first 15 games).  The Lowell, Mass. native is shooting 47 percent from the floor on the season.
• The Owls have won 17 of the last 19 head-to-head meetings by an average of 17 points per game.
• Hunter needs 22 points to move into the top 15 on Keene State's all-time men's basketball scoring list.
• Cain and his staff wore suits and sneakers in the two road games this week in recognition of the National Association of Basketball Coaches' (NABC) Coaches vs. Cancer initiative.  For more information, please visit www.nabc.com/cvc/.

Up Next

• Keene State hosts Eastern Connecticut State University (9-11, 6-5 LEC) on Wednesday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m.  It is Red and White Night, and the Cheshire Cats jump rope team will perform at halftime.  The Owls grinded to a 70-58 victory over the Warriors on January 10 in Willimantic.  KSC currently leads WestConn (17-1, 9-1 LEC) by a game and a half in the standings, though the Wolves will make up their game in hand on Monday when they host last-place Castleton University.
• Rhode Island College, still in contention for on the of the final playoff seeds though currently out of the top six, travels to face Western Connecticut on Wednesday before KSC goes to Danbury on Saturday.  The Wolves pulverized the Anchormen (1-6 on the road) 91-55 in the first meeting.