Jennifer Zinka
Equinox Staff
The Keene State men’s basketball team matched up in a Little East Conference game against the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors in the Spaulding Gymnasium, Jan. 22, at 7:30 p.m.
The owls had a strong start, with a 6-0 run including three-pointers: one from KSC senior, Ryan Martin, who leads the team in PPG (15.1) and the other from KSC sophomore, Tom Doyle. However, the Owls quickly found themselves in foul trouble with five fouls in the fist five minutes of the game, two of them belonging to senior, Eric Fazio.
The first half of the game consisted mostly of both teams going back and forth, basket for basket. But late in the first half, the Owls neglected to crash the boards. The Warriors outrebounded the Owls 14-10 in the first half.
A combination of fouling and failure to rebound caused the Owls to find themselves at a six-point deficit at the end of the half, 34-28. Both Martin and Rashad Wright had eight points a piece to end the half.
The Owls began the second half fouling early again but gained momentum with a 10-0 run, inspired by back to back threes from Martin and KSC freshman, Tre Tipton along with baskets from Rashad Wright and junior Montel Wolcott. They erased the previous deficit and took the lead, 41-38.
After a basket in between from the Warriors to make the score 41-40, the Owls put a stop to the Warriors and scored eight straight points.
However, the Warriors answered right back and quickly tied the game up at 50 a piece with 7:05 remaining.
The Warriors led by three until Tre Tipton scored his second three pointer of the night to tie it up once again at 55 with 5:04 left in the game.
After the Owls put up a tough fight to stay in the game, the Warriors slowly took over and gained a lead of 61-57 with just 13 seconds left. The Owls then had to rely on the foul game where the Warriors scored one more free throw and the Owls fell short, 62-57.
The owls stepped up their rebounding in the second half and eventually out rebounded the Warriors, 39-33. Rashad Wright led the Owls in rebounding (14) and scoring with 19 points. Not too far behind was Ryan Martin, with 11.
With the loss, the Owls fell to 10-7 on the year and 5-3 in Little East Conference play. The Owls are now ranked 4th in the LEC. There next game is at UMass-Boston on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.
Jennifer Zinka can be contacted at jzinka@ksc.keene.edu