KSC senior, Ryan Martin drives to the hoop during a win over Plymouth State on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2013 in the Spaulding Gymnasium. (Michelle Berthiaume / Sports Editor
Jennifer Zinka
Equinox Staff
The Keene State College men’s basketball team faced off with Little East Conference rival, Plymouth State University Tuesday, Feb. 5, in the Spaulding Gymnasium.
The Lady Owls snapped a four-game skid with a big own in the first game of the double header, 63-31 over the Panthers. The Owls were fueled by another big game from the lone senior, Siobhan Carnell. Carnell had 18 points in the big win. She’s averaging 16.4 a game along with 6.6 boards.
Junior, Carly Kiernan came off the bench to chip in 8 for the Lady Owls. Newcomer, Kelsey Cognetta had 8 points while Christan Wojtas also added 8.
The team is currently ranked number seven in the Little East Conference with a 3-8 conference record. They improved to 8-13 on the season with the win. The Owls will face off in another LEC bout on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. against Western Connecticut State University.
In the second game of the double header, the men’s basketball team knocked off Plymouth State University, 68-62. Senior Rashad Wright, who leads the team in rebounds and field goal percentage, was forced to sit out his second game in a row due to injury.
The Owls came out strong with multiple baskets from senior Eric Fazio, who had ten points just five minutes into the game.
Before the start of Tuesday’s game, Fazio was 47 points away from his 1000th point. He managed to put a huge dent in that milestone, scoring 20 points, making him only 27 points away with three games left in the regular season.
The majority of the first half consisted of the Owls maintaining small leads over the Panthers. However, scoring from Plymouths’ junior Petey Skevas, freshman Uche Nwokeji and sophmore Shomari Morgan took their first lead of the game at 33-30 with just 2:14 left in the first half.
Senior Ryan Martin was fouled and hit both shots to take the lead back, but Plymouth’s Nwokeji hit a buzzer beater to re-take the lead, 35-34 to end the first half.
The Owls were shooting 48% in the first half. Fazio shot 3-5 in field goals and held the lead in scoring with 11 points.
The second half started out with both teams playing even and each switching off one point leads.
The Owls eventually took the lead again but never lead by more than five points until 3:57 left in the game when Tom Doyle got back to back offensive rebounds and was fouled on the third attempt.
Doyle hit both free throws and the Owls took the lead by six with just 1:17 left in the game.
The Panthers were then forced to play the foul game after that, fouling the owls on every possession.
The Owls racked up eight more points in free throws to come out on top of the Panthers 62-68.
This win makes the owls 8-3 in the LEC conference and 14-8 overall.
They owls face up against off against another Little East Conference rival Western Connecticut State University on Saturday, Feb. 9at the Spaulding Gymnasium at 3:00 pm.
Jennifer Zinka can be contacted at jzinka@ksc.keene.edu