The defending Little East Conference Tournament champions picked up exactly where they left off with another win to open up LEC play on December 5.
The Keene State College men’s basketball team defeated the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 103-84 at Spaulding Gym. The Owls once again used a balanced scoring attack to come away with the victory. Keene State had five players in double figures.
The Owls scoring charge was led by sophomore Dizel Wright who finished with 27 points. Senior guard Nate Stitchell finished with 21 points. Junior guard Lucas Hamel and junior forward Jeff Lunn each had 14 points in the victory.
Junior forward Matt Ozzella had an outstanding game setting a new career high in rebounds with 18 and also contributed 12 points. Ozzella also had five assists and four steals.
Ozzella said he had to be aggressive in the victory. “We all knew that we had to crash the boards pretty hard tonight,” Ozzella said.
Owls Interim Head Coach Ryan Cain praised Ozzella’s effort. “He does so many good things for us and keeps his confidence. I really expect him to have a phenomenal year,” Cain said.
The Owls were able to take a 49-41 lead at halftime and were able to contain last season’s LEC Player of the Year Jordan Rezendes. Rezendes finished with 31 points in the contest, which is right around his average coming into the game of 30.9 points per game.
“The game plan was Rezendes was going to get his shots up and score a little bit. We have to stop everyone else and not let them get to their average [point total],” Ozzella said.
Keene State was able to pull away for the victory in the second half using an 11-0 run coming out of the locker room. The Owls had their largest lead of the game in the second half when they led by 21 points.
Keene State excelled shooting the ball in the victory shooting 48.8 percent from the field and the Corsairs shot just 36 percent from the field.
Keene State will be back in action one last time in New England before they embark on their long road trip after Christmas to Arizona. The Owls travel to the University of Massachusetts Boston to take on the Beacons on Saturday, December 13. Tip off is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Brian can be contacted at bclemmenson@kscequinox.com