Freshman Nets 20+ For Sixth Straight Game

BOSTON, Mass.—Freshman Brynn Rautiola scored 19 of her 28 points after halftime and the Keene State College women's basketball team outscored UMass Boston 21-4 in the decisive third quarter en route to a 59-48 Little East Conference  win at the Clark Athletic Center on Saturday.

Records

• Keene State: 10-10, 6-6 LEC
• UMass Boston: 4-16, 2-11 LEC

How it Happened

It was a tough start for the Owls, as UMass Boston scored the first nine points of the game and led 16-7 and the end of the first quarter thanks to Beeban Pearson's three pointer with two seconds left in the period.

Another three, this one from Keriann Farina, extended the Beacons' lead to 22-9 with 7:31 left in the first half, but the Owls closed to within nine at half-time on a three from Rautiola and a free throw by Samantha Lee.

Keene State roared out of the blocks to open the second half, getting consecutive buckets by Lee and a three pointer from Katie Sullivan to knot the score at 30 with 6:02 remaining.  Rautiola gave the Owls their first lead of the game with a layup, and the Beacons tied the score again with Sophie Bradbury's hoop, but the Beacons did not score again in the period, as the Owls scored the final eight points of the stanza to take a 40-32 lead.

Rautiola canned threes on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 46-34, and the Owls were never challenged after that, taking a 16 point lead on a basket by Lee and going 5-for-6 from the line down the stretch.

Rautiola scored over 20 points for the sixth consecutive game, upping her per-game average to 20.2 and keeping her at the top of the Little East scoring charts.  She shot 8-for-22 from the field and grabbed five rebounds and passed out two assists.  She also knocked down 8-of-11 free throw attempts.

Lee added 11 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, and was the only other KSC player in double-figures.

Inside the Paint

• If Rautiola maintains her scoring pace of 20+ points per game, she will become just the third player in school history to average at least points a game, joining Debbie Higgins, who averaged 22 ppg in 1974-75, and Tracey Fidler, who scored at a 21.5 per game clip in 1982-83.
• Rautiola is shooting 85.2% (104-for-122) from the free throw line.  The 104 makes are already tied for the fifth highest single season total, while the percentage is just .002 off the single season record, currently held by Jan Sadowski in the 1988-89 season.  
• Keene State, playing for the third time in four days, now sits in fifth place in the conference, one game back of Eastern Connecticut State.   The top two seeds in the LEC tournament will receive a bye into the semifinals, while the three and four seeds will host quarterfinal matchups.

Up Next

• The Owls will stay on the road for a key game at Eastern Connecticut State on February 7 at 5 p.m.
• The Beacons host LEC rival UMass Dartmouth on the same day, at the same time.