First Half
Despite leading Eastern Connecticut State University at half time, Keene State College’s men’s basketball team came up short in the end.
The Owls started off strong. Within the first four minutes first year Jordan Haywood scored four points.
Eastern Connecticut Warriors had taken the next possession but both teams offensively didn’t score until 12:16, making the score 7-6.
The Owls got back into action shortly after. With the help of Senior Dizel Wright and first year James Anozie, they put their team up 13-8 with ten minutes and 59 seconds remaining.
The Owls still had a lead of 29-22 with only 2:27 remaining in the first half.
Warriors, Carlos Gonzalez and KSC Owls, Wright both had an exchange of threes with only a minute remaining still having the Owls up with a score of 32-27.
Right before halftime, The Owls had a turn over making the score 32-29 at halftime.
At the end of the first half, starters Ty Nichols and Haywood both had five points, Anozie had six points, and Wright had nine points. Coming from the bench, Kyle Santoro had three points and Ben Olson had four points.
Second Half
Eastern Warriors quickly took in control as the second half started off.
Within four minutes the Warriors were up 44-35. The Owls had it tied for only a little bit at the 17:58 mark.
But Eastern Warriors’ Kendall Marquez hit a three and then was fouled while attempting to make another three which lead to him completing a four point lay up.
This had the Eastern Warriors up nine points with 16:12 left on the clock. KSC Owls were struggling to keep up.
Still behind, The Owls’ Nichols and Anozie had layups making the score 52-44.
With only eight minutes and a second remaining, Wright made two free throws to make it 53-46.
Immediately after this, Eastern Warriors’ Gonzalez, made a three and a transition bucket due to a turnover made by the KSC Owls.
This put them up 58-46. With only six minutes remaining KSC Owls had almost made a comeback with the help of Wright and Sidi Diallo having a score of 58-51.
Unfortunately KSC Owls wasn’t able to stop Eastern Warrior, Gonzalez who helped his team take the lead by eleven points.
With four minutes and 55 seconds remaining KSC Owls were still down by ten.
They were only able to score five more points for the rest of the game. The final score was 62-79.
Wright had 18 points, Anozie had 13 points and Nichols had 12 points.
This made it the second straight tournament title for the Eastern Warriors.
Adriana Sanchez can be contacted at asanchez@kscequinox.com
