KSC Finishes 22-3 in Regular Season, Has Won 50 of Last 55

KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State College men's basketball team closed the regular season with two things.  One, a hallmark balanced attack, as seven players scored between eight and 16 points.  Two, a strong defensive performance that held Rhode Island College to their second worst shooting performance of the season (26.8 percent) as the No. 11 nationally-ranked Owls cruised to an 88-59 Little East Conference win over the Anchormen on Senior Day at Spaulding Gymnasium Saturday.

Records

• No. 11 Keene State: 22-3, 15-1 LEC
• Rhode Island College: 14-11, 7-9 LEC

Postgame Interview (Coach Hastings)
Sullivan Tire Player of the Game Interview (Jeff Hunter)

How It Happened
KSC clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming LEC tournament on Wednesday with a win at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, but today ensured that the regular season title would be theirs alone with a pummeling of the Anchormen that was rarely close.  The Owls trailed by one for just 11 seconds and got a triple from Nate Siow on their first possession, and were off to the races from there, going up 9-2 on a Jeff Hunter layup just 2:11 in.  The Owl big man was one of three seniors recognized in a ceremony prior to the game (along with Alonzo Linton and student assistant coach Nicholas Napolitano), but KSC knows that their goals are to play several more games at Spaulding Gymnasium before the season is over.  The next one will come Thursday in a Little East tournament semifinal against either the University of Southern Maine (No. 4 seed) or the same Anchormen, the No. 5 seed (7:00 p.m.).

The Owls took their first double-digit advantage only 4:46 in, going up 18-7 on a bucket by Linton, and the lead was never below 10 again – and mostly just kept widening.  Consecutive layups from Hunter and Brito pushed the advantage to 26-10 at the 10:31 mark, and a triple from Brito barely over a minute later had KSC in front 29-11.  The home team shot only 8-for-30 from three in the game, but had it going for a period of time in the first half, as Spencer Aronson drilled one for a 19-point edge with 8:20 left, and one each from Linton and Mason Jean Baptiste later made it 40-22.  Keene State went up 20 on Siow's bucket at the 2:20 mark and carried a 46-27 lead into the locker room with Siow scoring a game-high 12 points.  The Owls limited the Anchormen to just 25 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

Rhode Island College's effiency did not change much from there, and neither did the score.  The visitors were held to just a 28.6 percent effort from the floor in the second half, and in the game were just 11-for-49 (22 percent) from inside the arc.  Ousmane Kourouma, who had a 30/20 double-double when the Owls beat the Anchormen by 10 in Providence, finished with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, 17 rebounds, and four fouls.

RIC never got closer than 16 after the break, and KSC took a 52-32 edge on a putback dunk by Hunter with 17:02 to go before his three-point play, block, and Wesley Odiase layup in a six-second span made it 61-35 at the 13:02 mark.  Brito canned a trey three minutes later to push the lead to 30, and added a dunk of his own with 9:44 left for a 70-40 advantage.  The Owls led by as many as 31 three different times down the stretch, and finish the regular season with a plus-20.9 scoring differential and averaging 89.3 points per game.  They are shooting nearly 10 percentage points higher than their opponents.

Siow paced KSC with 16 points (6-14 FG, 2-5 3-PT, 2-2 FT), four rebounds, two assists, and two steals to lead five in double-figures.  Hunter tacked on yet another double-double with 13 points (5-6 FG, 3-3 FT), 18 boards, five assists, and four blocks, while Brito (5-12 FG, 2-5 3-PT), Linton (4-13 FG, 3-3 FT), and Odiase (5-10 FG, 2-4 FT) all had 12 points.  Brito added eight boards, four assists, and three blocks while Odiase had nine rebounds.  KSC outrebounded the Anchormen 52-39.

Deyshawn Tengbeh led RIC with 23 points (16 in the second half) on 8-of-18 shooting, 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.  Isaiah McCallam was harassed into a nine-point effort on 2-of-15 shooting from the field as the Anchormen, at one point appearing to be a challenger toward the top of the league standings, finished 3-6 in their last nine and 4-9 after a 10-2 start to the season that included wins over the second-ranked team in Region II (Nichols College) and at Amherst College.

For the Owls, though – as coach David Hastings mentioned on a postgame interview on the Owls Media Network – they are now promised only one more game.  Their quest for a Little East tournament three-peat will begin Thursday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.  No team has won three straight league titles since UMass-Dartmouth from 1993-1995.  KSC joined the conference in 1997.

Inside the Paint

• Hunter, a do-everything senior, tied the Owl record with 111 career games started this afternoon.  He is the fourth-highest scorer in program history and the all-time leader in rebounds, blocks, and field goal percentage…while also being up there in a litany of other categories.
• KSC has won 10 straight against Rhode Island College, eight by double-digits, and 19 of the last 21.

Up Next

• Keene State's LEC semifinal against either RIC or USM will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night.  The other matchup will see No. 2 seed Western Connecticut State University take on either No. 3 seed UMass-Dartmouth or No. 6 seed University of Massachusetts-Boston (6:00 p.m. on the same night).
• Rhode Island College will travel to Gorham to take on the Huskies for the third time this season.  The Anchormen won both matchups, but by a combined seven points (70-66 on the road December 6 and 60-57 in Providence January 24).