Keene State beat the Huskies of the University of Southern Maine for the eighth straight time last Saturday with a final score of 101-84.
In the first three minutes of KSC’s game against USM, the Owls opened with a lead of 11-0. They were quickly up 20-4 at four and half minutes in. Senior Spencer Aronson helped the Owls with their roaring start where he tallied 13 first half points.
Fifth-year senior guard Nate Siow became the 41st member of the KSC 1,000-point club in the history of the men’s basketball team. After Keene secured their 30-point lead (81-51), eyes were turned to see if Siow would get his 20 points left to secure his 1,000 point history. In the final 20 minutes, Siow took 12 shots and was able to accomplish his goal with 3:13 to spare. After weaving his way through two of the USM defenders he put his final shot in the basket and put himself in the history books for Keene State Men’s Basketball.
Junior Liam Johnston hit a buzzer beater triple that pushed KSC with momentum going into the second half. The University of Southern Maine came within eight points during the first 1:39 of the second half during a 9-4 burst which got them the closest in points to the Owls since 18:15 in the first half. KSC responded in the next 7:03 to go up to 30. During that they shot 11-of-20 and made 4-of-8 while they limited USM to only 2-of-13.
During a burst, the Owls had six different players score including senior Octavio Brito, sophomore Wesley Odiase and six from junior Ryan Blakey. Blakey made two threes which included an interception pass from the Huskies making the score 71-51. He would go on to help Brito in an alley-oop-pass for a two-handed dunk with 8:38 left, putting KSC 85-61.
Siow would lead the Owls with five rebounds, five assists and two steals to help his team with 20 points. Brito added 19 points, 17-rebound double-double on a 9-of-18 to go along with his four assists and four blocks. Keene State has won all nine of their division games by double-digits and are currently sixth in the country for division three in assist-to-turnover-ratio. The Owls will play Plymouth State on January 29 in an away game against the Panthers.
Olivia Casale can be contacted at
ocasale@kscequinox.com
