KEENE, N.H. – Fifteen different players overall and the Keene State College men's basketball team built a 32-point lead in less than 12 minutes on Wednesday night as the Owls ran away – quickly – to post a 101-55 demolition of Vermont State University Castleton in a Little East Conference game at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Postgame Interview (Coach Enright)
Postgame Interview (Ryan Blakey)

The game was never in doubt for KSC (8-3, 3-0 LEC), who shot 63 percent from the floor in the opening half while leading by as many as 43 before it was 59-20 at the break.  It was their third league win of the season, all total runaways, as they have outscored their first three such opponents by a combined 111 points and have scored at least 93 points in every game.  After Castleton made it 2-2 less than a minute in, the Owls proceeded to embark on a run of 24 consecutive points, holding the Spartans scoreless from the floor for a span of well over six minutes while forcing six turnovers.  Offensively in that span, KSC made nine of 12 shots from the field, four of six from three, and both free throws.  Octavio Brito (12) and Mason Jean Baptiste (10) combined for 22 of the points in that span, which consisted of a fair amount of their action on the night, as they played 16 and 15 minutes, respectively.

After Castleton finally broke their scoreless stretch, that did little to slow down KSC, as Ryan Blakey and Josh Williams each canned threes to make it 33-4 at the 11:23 mark.  Liam Johnston joined in on the trey action two minutes later to make it 37-6, and the Owls kept pouring it on, going up 50-10 at the 3:47 mark after scoring eight points in 1:27.  Chaikin rose for a slam on KSC's next possession, and the lead grew as high as 43 on two occasions – the first after a triple from Isaac Ogutuga and the other the first career field goal for Denis Wainaina.  The Owls finished 22-of-35 from the field and 8-of-17 from three while holding Castleton to just a 28 percent mark and forcing 13 turnovers by the visitors.

KSC head coach Steve Enright was able to get 12 different players double-digit minutes in the second half and 15 different players scored overall, including six points apiece from Ogutuga (2-3 3-PT) and Kai Kostmayer (3-3 FG).  Nearly half of the Owls' scoring came from reserves, as they outscored the Castleton bench (four players) 56-11.
Brito led the way for Keene State, finishing with 21 points (9-11 FG, 3-4 3-PT), seven rebounds, and four steals in 16 minutes.  Jean Baptiste had an efficient 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting overall and 2-of-4 from three while adding three assists.  Blakey added seven assists, six points, six rebounds, and two steals in 15 minutes.

Troy Butler paced Castleton with 20 points (7-16 FG, 4-8 3-PT, 2-2 FT), 11 of which came in the second half.  Ben Seiler added 13 points (5-10 FG, 3-6 3-PT), but the Spartans fell to 0-9 at Spaulding Gymnasium, losing all of them by double-digits and the last four by a combined 163 points.

KSC was playing their first game as an unranked team since the beginning of the 2022-2023 season, falling out of the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll this week and into the receiving votes category, where they were the first team listed along with Gettysburg College (50 points).  Denison University had 59 points as the No. 25 ranked team.

The Owls' busy stretch will pick up in earnest with a pair of conference road contests upcoming, as they first visit the University of Massachusetts-Boston (7-5, 2-2 LEC) on Saturday (January 11) for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off.  It will kick off a stretch of four games in seven days, with contests on the following Monday and Wednesday to follow after that.  Castleton hosts the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (3-8, 0-3 LEC) on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.