The Owls pulled out a long-awaited win on a big stage on Feb. 28.
The Keene State College men’s basketball team showed they were the champions of the Little East Conference [LEC] with an 18-point win against Rhode Island College in the conference final.
The title is the team’s first since 2004. Coach Rob Colbert expressed how pleased he was with his team’s play during the championship game.
“We played great. [I’m] so proud of our kids,” Colbert said.
Tim Smith / Senior Photographer
Colbert, who has been with the Owls since the 1999-00 season, was on the sidelines when KSC captured its last title.
“I’ve been there. I’m always excited when you get a chance to do that with kids who haven’t been there,” Colbert said
None of Colbert’s players had managed to capture the elusive title before Feb. 28.
However, that didn’t affect the team’s confidence that it would walk off the court as the LEC champion.
“I don’t think there was a doubt in anyone’s mind,” senior Tom Doyle said.
Both teams the Owls faced in the postseason, Eastern Connecticut State University and Rhode Island College, swept KSC in the regular season, with the Owls losing twice to each team.
Nonetheless, the Owls did not falter at the challenge.
“Yeah we lost to them twice, but I just felt like everything was positive. Everybody just knew what they had to do to win the game. We listened to the coaches and pulled it out to an eighteen-point victory,” Doyle said.
The Owls won when it counted the most. One player in particular made a huge impact during the championship game.
Dizel Wright dislocated his shoulder early in the championship game, but came back in the second half and put 18 points on the board by the time the final buzzer rang.
Wright said his will to win was what drove him to overcome his injury.
“One thing about me: I like winning. I wanted to see the guys win,” Wright said.
Wright did, indeed, see his team win. Despite his performance in the finals, Wright credited his fellow players’ overall teamwork as the deciding factor in the postseason.
“We played together throughout the tournament,” Wright said. Wright also said that he and his team were driven to prove doubters wrong. “Nobody believed in us that we could actually win the LEC. The only people that believed in us was us. We wanted to prove a point,” Wright said.
The victory in the LEC finals earned them a ticket to the NCAA tournament. However, the Owls fell short in the first round against John-Hopkins in a 78-95 loss.
While the loss was disappointing, Coach Colbert showed his appreciation for his teams efforts and the effect that the LEC win had on the Greater Keene community. “It was so great for the community,” Colbert said. “We had local community members down there [Willimantic, Conn.], we had campus community members, students, down there cheering us on. So to be able to share that and have a sense of pride in Keene State I think is tremendous.”
The Owls finished a long six-month season with a record of 20-9, with an 8-6 record in conference matchups. When 2016 comes around, Colbert and his players will be looking to defend their title as the best in the LECs.
Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com
